India Tracts, by Mr. J. Z. Holwell, and Friends

That's French for "the ancient system," as in the ancient system of feudal privileges and the exercise of autocratic power over the peasants. The ancien regime never goes away, like vampires and dinosaur bones they are always hidden in the earth, exercising a mysterious influence. It is not paranoia to believe that the elites scheme against the common man. Inform yourself about their schemes here.

Re: India Tracts, by Mr. J. Z. Holwell, and Friends

Postby admin » Mon Nov 23, 2020 6:52 am

Part 2 of 2

Of what passed in this interval to the time of my resurrection from this hole of horrors, I can give you no account; and indeed, the particulars mentioned by some of the gentlemen who survived, (solely by the number of those dead, by which they gained a freer accession of air, and approach to the windows) were so excessively absurd and contradictory, as to convince me, very few of them retained their senses; or at least, lost them soon after they came into the open air, by the fever they carried out with them.

In my own escape from absolute death the hand of heaven was manifestly exerted: the manner take as follows. When the day broke, and the gentlemen found that no entreaties could prevail to get the door opened, it occurred to one of them, (I think to Mr. secretary Cooke) to make a search for me, in hopes I might have influence enough to gain a release from this scene of misery. Accordingly Messrs. Lushington and Walcot undertook the search, and by my shirt discovered me under the dead upon the platform. They took me from thence; and imagining I had some signs of life, brought me towards the window I had first possession of.

But as life was equally dear to every man, (and the stench arising from the dead bodies was grown intolerable) no one would give up his station in or near the window: so they were obliged to carry me back again. But soon after Captain Mills (now captain of the company's yacht) who was in possession of a seat in the window, had the humanity to offer to resign it. I was again brought by the same gentlemen, and placed in the window.

At this juncture the Suba, who had received an account of the havoc death had made amongst us, sent one of his Jemmautdaars to inquire if the chief survived. They shewed me to him; told him I had appearance of life remaining, and believed I might recover if the door was opened very soon. This answer being returned to the Suba, an order came immediately for our release, it being then near six in the morning.

The fresh air at the window soon brought me to life; and a few minutes after the departure of the Jemmautdaar, I was restored to my sight and senses.
But oh! Sir, what words shall I adopt to tell you the whole that my soul suffered at reviewing the dreadful destruction round me? I will not attempt it; and indeed, tears (a tribute I believe I shall ever pay to the remembrance of this scene, and to the memory of those brave and valuable men) stop my pen.

The little strength remaining amongst the most robust who survived, made it a difficult task to remove the dead piled up against the door; so that I believe it was more than twenty minutes before we obtained a passage out for one at a time. I had soon reason to be convinced the particular inquiry made after me did not result from any dictate of favour, humanity, or contrition; when I came out, I found myself in a high putrid fever, and, not being able to stand, threw myself on the wet grass without the Veranda, when a message was brought me, signifying I must immediately attend the Suba. Not being capable of walking, they were obliged to support me under each arm; and on the way, one of the jemmautdaurs told me, as a friend, to make a full confession where the treasure was buried in the fort, or that in half an hour I should be shot off from the mouth of a cannon. [A sentence of death common in Indostan.] The intimation gave me no manner of concern; for, at that juncture, I should have esteemed death the greatest favor the tyrant could have bestowed upon me.

Being brought into his presence, he soon observed the wretched plight I was in, and ordered a large folio volume, which lay on a heap of plunder, to be brought for me to sit on. I endeavored two or three times to speak, but my tongue was dry and without motion. He ordered me water. As soon as I got speech, I began to recount the dismal catastrophe of my miserable companions. But he stopped me short, with telling me, he was well informed of great treasure being buried or secreted in the fort, and that I was privy to it; and if I expected favor, must discover it.

I urged every thing I could to convince him there was no truth in the information; or that if any such thing had been done, it was without my knowledge.
I reminded him of his repeated assurance to me, the day before; but he resumed the subject of the treasure, and all I could say seemed to gain no credit with him. I was ordered prisoner under Mhir Muddon, General of the Household Troops.

Amongst the guard which carried me from the Suba, one bore a large Moratter battle-axe, which gave rise, I imagine, to Mr. Secretary Cooke's belief and report to the fleet, that he saw me carried out, with the edge of the ax towards me, to have my head struck off. This I believe is the only account you will have of me, until I bring you a better myself. But to resume my subject: I was ordered to the camp of Mhir Muddon's quarters, within the outward ditch, something short of Omychund's [Omichund] garden (which you know is above three miles from the fort) and with me Messieurs Court, Walcot, and Burdet. The rest, who survived the fatal night, gained their liberty, except Mrs. Carey, who was too young and handsome. The dead bodies were promiscuously thrown into the ditch of our unfinished ravelin, and covered with the earth.

My being treated with this severity, I have sufficient reason to affirm, proceeded from the following causes. The Suba's resentment for my defending the fort, after the Governor, &c. had abandoned it; his prepossession touching the treasure; and thirdly, the instigations of Omychund [A great Gentoo merchant of Calcutta.] in resentment for my not releasing him out of prison, as soon as I had the command of the fort: a circumstance, which in the heat and hurry of action, never once occurred to me, or I had certainly done it; because I thought his imprisonment unjust. But that the hard treatment I met with, may truly be attributed in a great measure to his suggestion and insinuations, I am well assured, from the whole of his subsequent conduct; and this further confirmed to me, in the three gentlemen selected to be my companions, against each of whom he had conceived particular resentment; and you know Omychund can never forgive.

30th. It will by some, I doubt not, be represented to you that Omychund was at the bottom of all the Suba's councils and proceedings against us; the part he really acted under cover, in this affair, is difficult to distinguish and point out; that he was much chagrined at the little influence he had in the settlement for a few years last past, is most certain; in applications to the Durbar, (wherein he usually was the acting person between the Company and the Government) little use had been made of him, possibly more had been better. -- Be this as it will, it is most certain, he had no general weight for these four or five years, beyond what his wealth gave him, so that his name and reputation became lessened in the eye of the government as well as in Calcutta. Piqued at this, and implacable in his resentment, it is not improbable he worked with some instruments of the Durbar, to embroil us in such a manner as would make his mediation and assistance necessary, and thereby regain his credit and influence with both; little imagining things would go the length they did; in which it must have been most evident to him, his own large possessions would be equally the Suba's prey, with yours: that he advised the dispatch of Naran Sing, to demand Raagbullob's family, and introduce him into the settlement, will not I think admit of doubt, no more than that he deeply resented his being turned out of it again. His endeavors with Wazeed, to mitigate things, when he really found they were coming to extremities, was l believe sincere enough until his imprisonment by the President, an act of his power and sole authority, for which the pretence made use of was, in my judgment, by no means sufficient; the correspondence detected between him and Rajaram Harkarah, (the Suba's head spy) which was read in the presence of many of us, contained in our opinions nothing to vindicate it, nor had your President even the consent or approbation of his Council for this step, or did he, that I remember, ever require it. On his imprisonment, his head Jemmautdaar Jaggemant Sing stabbed himself, and set fire to his master's house, and some of his women either butchered themselves, or were butchered by others in the family, which became a scene of much horror and confusion. It can hardly be doubted that Omychund became desperate in his resentments, and it is probable enough he expedited the march of the Suba's army, then advanced, I think, as far as Banka Bazar; and it is likewise probable, that he then sent him the real state of the fort and garrison, and afterwards might (as has been generally suspected) from time to time have given him intelligence; but this is all conjecture; we only know, that his Jemmautdaar just now mentioned, surviving the wounds he had given himself, was put upon his horse, and joined the Suba, whom he informed of the transaction relating to his master's imprisonment; and when the enemy was repulsed at Baagbazar, he led the van of the army to the eastward, and directed them to the avenues by which they entered the next day.

-- Important Facts regarding the East India Company's Affairs in Bengal, from the Year 1752 to 1760. This Treatise Contains an Exact State of the Company's Revenues in that Settlement; With Copies of several very interesting Letters Showing Particularly, The Real Causes Which Drew on the Presidency of Bengal the Dreadful Catastrophe of the Year 1767; and Vindicating the Character of Mr. Holwell From Many Scandalous Aspersions Unjustly Thrown Out Against Him, in an Anonymous Pamphlet, Published March 6th, 1764, Entitled, "Reflections on the Present State of Our East-India Affairs. by J.Z. Holwell


A. Omichund v. Barker

The dispute in Omichund began when Hugh Barker,27 an employee of the East India Company and territorial governor, refused to pay a debt of more than 60,000 rupees28 to an extraordinarily wealthy local merchant named Amirchand (typically listed as Omichund or Omychund in contemporary British records).29 When Amirchand filed suit in Calcutta, Barker quickly absconded on a ship for Europe but died on the journey.

Seeking recovery of the debt, Amirchand’s lawyers in England sued Barker’s estate in chancery court. Barker’s executor then filed a cross-claim requiring a sworn answer. Because Amirchand was not a Christian and therefore could not swear on the Bible, “a Commission went to take his Answer in that Manner in which he was able to give it.”30 While in India, the commission also took depositions from several Christian and Hindu witnesses.

When the commission returned to England, Amirchand’s lawyers sought to file the answer and to introduce the Hindu witnesses’ depositions as evidence, but the attorney for Barker’s estate, John Tracy Atkyns, objected to the competency of these deponents on account of their religious beliefs. Atkyns cited Coke for the proposition that only Christians could swear an oath.31 Atkyns insisted that the “ignorant, ... absurd and ridiculous” religious principles of the Hindu witnesses were insufficient for them to comprehend the sanctity of an oath.32

Because of Amirchand’s financial and political power and the commercial importance of allowing non-Christians—particularly Jewish merchants—to testify in English courts, the case garnered substantial attention. When the dispute reached the High Court of Chancery, Lord Chancellor Philip York, First Earl of Hardwicke, asked for the assistance of three of the country’s most eminent jurists: the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer.33 And among the lawyers arguing on behalf of Amirchand were two of England’s leading jurists, Attorney General Dudley Ryder and Solicitor General William Murray, soon to become the famous Earl of Mansfield.34

In his argument, Ryder acknowledged Coke’s statement about oaths but claimed that the exigencies of foreign commerce necessitated allowing Hindu testimony: “[T]rade requires it, policy requires it, and in dealings of this kind it is of infinite consequence, there should not be a failure of justice.”35 Murray articulated an even more liberal rule of evidence. Looking to British history and the experience of other countries, including India, Murray argued that an “oath must be always understood according to the belief of the person who takes it.”36 Cognizant of the commercial consequences of excluding Hindu testimony, Murray continued: “Heathens bought the goods, heathens sent them, heathens knew the price, heathens kept the account. Would it do honour then to the Christian religion, to say, that you cannot swear according to our oath, and therefore you shall not be sworn at all? What must the heathen courts think of our proceedings? Will it not destroy all faith and confidence between the contracting parties?”37 Hindus believed in a god, Murray stated, “though they may have subordinate deities, as [do] the papists who worship saints.”38

According to custom, the judges gave oral seriatim opinions, with each judge speaking for himself. Lord Chief Baron Thomas Parker argued that it was necessary to admit the Hindu deponents’ statements. “Upon the whole,” he declared, “not to admit these witnesses would be destructive of trade, and subversive of justice, and attended with innumerable inconveniences.”39 Lord Chief Justice William Lee and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke concurred. Lee, drawing on the natural-law current of English jurisprudence, stated that “rules of evidence are to be considered as artificial rules, framed by men for convenience in courts of justice, and founded upon good reason: But one rule can never vary, viz. the eternal rule of natural justice.”40 Hardwicke agreed that the “one general rule of evidence” was to admit “the best [evidence] that the nature of the case will admit.”41 Differences in religious views were no barrier. “All that is necessary to an oath,” Hardwicke wrote, “is an appeal to the Supreme Being, as thinking him the rewarder of truth, and avenger of falshood.”42

The opinion of Lord Chief Justice John Willes subsequently received the most attention, primarily because later jurists disputed what Willes had said. According to the report of defense attorney John Tracy Atkyns, Willes stated: “I am of opinion that infidels who believe a God, and future rewards and punishments in the other world, may be witnesses.”43 As interpreted in later decisions, the requirement of belief in future rewards and punishments meant that individuals who did not believe in heaven and hell could not swear an oath.

In 1799, however, English lawyer Charles Durnford published a lengthier—and substantively different—version of the opinion, apparently based on a manuscript in Willes’s papers.44 According to Durnford, Willes had written that a witness may be admitted if he “believes a God and that he will reward and punish him in this world, but does not believe a future state.”45 But, Willes apparently clarified, “it must be left to the jury what credit must be given to these infidel witnesses. For I do not think that the same credit ought to be given either by a court or a jury to an infidel witness as to a Christian, who is under much stronger obligations to swear nothing but the truth.”46

Comparisons of the various Omichund reports indicates that Willes, in his oral delivery from the bench, deviated at times from the manuscript version published by Durnford.47 But an unpublished manuscript in the Lincoln’s Inn Library seems to confirm the Durnford report’s position: that Willes declared all theists as capable of swearing an oath, even if judges sometimes barred their testimony because it was not the “best evidence” available.48
Perhaps he was worried that Jewish witnesses might be categorically excluded if the law required belief in rewards and punishments after death.49 More importantly, however, the decisions of Willes and his colleagues reflect a transformation of English evidence law from rules based on a person’s status to ones based on the perceived evidentiary value of the person’s testimony.50

_______________

Notes:

27. Identification of Barker’s first name comes from Kirti N. Chaudhuri, The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company, 1660–1760 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 357.

28. The complaint “was brought to have a satisfaction for 67,955 rupees, amounting to about 7,600 £ English money, from the estate of the late Mr. Barker.” 1 Atk. 21. In modern purchasing power, that sum would be well over £1,000,000.

29. See Kumkum Chatterjee, “Trade and Darbar Politics in the Bengal Subah, 1733– 1757,” Modern Asian Studies 26 (1992): 243–71; Somendra C. Nandy, “Amir Chand (d. 1758),” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Henry Colin Gray Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

30. Omichund, 2 Eq. Cas. Abr. 398.

31. Omychund v. Barker, 1 Atk. 21, 23, 26 Eng. Rep. 15 (High Ct. Ch. 1744/5). This report was published as John Tracy Atkyns, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery in the Time of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, 3 vols. (London: J. Worrall & W. Sandby, 1765–68).

32. Ibid., 24.

33. Omichund v. Barker, 2 Eq. Cas. Abr. 407.

34. See Norman S. Poser, Lord Mansfield: Justice in the Age of Reason (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013), 86, 98–99 (discussing the lucrative private practice of Murray, including his representation of Amirchand). On Ryder’s and Murray’s official duties, see James Oldham, “The Work of Ryder and Murray as Law Officers of the Crown,” in Legal Record and Historical Reality, ed. Thomas G. Watkin (London: The Hambledon Press, 1989), 157.

35. Omychund v. Barker, 1 Atk. 30. See also Omichund v. Barker, MSS. Misc. 136, Lincoln’s Inn Library, London, England (hereafter Omichund v. Barker, Lincoln’s Inn Manuscript), 1135 (“[T]he Nature of Trade & Commerce require it”). This manuscript, which is part of a five-volume set of English decisions, was written “by an unknown hand.” John H. Baker, English Legal Manuscripts, 2 vols. (Zug, Switzerland: Inter Documentation Co., 1975–78), 2:99. Pages 1153–68 of the manuscript contain a transcription of Lord Chief Baron Thomas Parker’s decision, which the writer notes “was delivered by [Parker] in Court, & which I transcribed from a Copy lent by him to Sir John Strange.” Omichund v. Barker, Lincoln’s Inn Manuscript, 1153.

36. Omychund v. Barker, 1 Atk. 33.

37. Ibid., 34. See also Omichund v. Barker, Lincoln’s Inn Manuscript, 1137 (“Christian Courts must do Justice to the Indians if there is a Commerce between them, otherwise there is no Faith at all & no Jurisd[ictio]n can be exercised”).

38. Omychund v. Barker, 1 Atk. 34.

39. Ibid., 44. See also Omichund v. Barker, Lincoln’s Inn Manuscript, 1143 (“The not admitting this Evidence would be destructive of Trade & subversive of Justice and liable to many other Inconveniences”). The transcription of Parker’s original manuscript reads: “The rejecting of these Witnesses would be both destructive of Trade & subversive of Justice, & attended with infinite other Inconveniences.” Ibid., 1168.

40. Omychund v. Barker, 1 Atk. 46. See also Omichund v. Barker, Lincoln’s Inn Manuscript, 1147 (“The Rules of Evidence are considered as positive artificial Rules formed by Men for their Convenience as to proceedings in Courts of Justice, but there is one Rule which is fixed eternal & immutable, & that is the Rule of natural Justice, & all other Rules must give way to this”).

41. Omychund v. Barker, 1 Atk. 49. See also Omichund v. Barker, Lincoln’s Inn Manuscript, 1150 (“[T]here is but one general Rule of Evidence, i.e. that the best Evidence must be received, that the nature of the Case will admit”).

42. Omychund v. Barker, 1 Atk. 48. See also Omichund v. Barker, Lincoln’s Inn Manuscript, 1150 (“[A]ll that is necessary is, An Appeal to the Supreme Being, the Witness of the Truth & the Avenger of Perjury”).

43. Omychund v. Barker, 1 Atk. 45 (emphasis added). Willes clarified that evidence of religious belief could still be used to impeach a witness’s credibility. Ibid., 45–46 (“It must be left to the jury or judge what credit they will give... . The same credit ought not to be given to the evidence of an infidel, as of a Christian; because [he is] not under the same obligations”). According to a report published in 1756, Willes stated: “I think such Infidels, who believe in God, and that he will punish them if they swear falsly, in some Cases, and under some Circumstances, ought to be admitted as Witnesses in this tho’ a Christian Country, but that one who has not such Belief, cannot be admitted under any Circumstances.” Omichund v. Barker, 2 Eq. Cas. Abr. 404–5.

44. Omichund v. Barker, 1 Willes 538, 125 Eng. Rep. 1310 (High Ct. Ch. 1744/5). This report was published as Charles Durnford, Reports of Adjudged Cases in the Court of Common Pleas During the Time Lord Chief Justice Willes Presided in That Court (London: A. Strahan, 1799). The report was later published in Philadelphia and was widely cited in the United States. For a study of the use of manuscript case notes in eighteenth-century England, see James Oldham, “The Indispensability of Manuscript Case Notes to Eighteenth-Century Barristers and Judges,” in Making Legal History: Approaches and Methodologies, ed. Anthony Musson and Chantal Stebbings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 30–52. For an introduction to eighteenth-century reporting practices, see, for example, James Oldham, “Underreported and Underrated: The Court of Common Pleas in the Eighteenth Century,” in Law as Culture and Culture as Law: Essays in Honor of John Phillip Reid, ed. Hendrik Hartog and William E. Nelson (Madison, WI: Madison House Publishers, Inc., 2000), 119–46.

45. Omichund v. Barker, 1 Willes 550. See also ibid., 549.

46. Ibid., 550.

47. Some comments, for example, appear in other reports but not in the Durnford report. Compare 1 Atk. 44 (“Lord Coke is a very great lawyer, but our Saviour and St. Peter are in this respect much better authorities”), and 2 Eq. Cas. Abr. 403 (“Coke was certainly a very great Lawyer, but I think our Saviour and St. Peter in these Matters much better authorities”), and Lincoln’s Inn Manuscript, 1144 (“Now my Lord Coke is a great Authority, but it must be allowed, that Our Saviour & St. Peter are greater”), with 1 Willes 542 (“It is a little mean narrow notion ...”). Moreover, the 1756 report, the 1765 Atkyns report, and the unpublished manuscript seem to have been independently recorded when the decisions were read, given that some material appears in the Durnford report and only one of the two earlier reports. Compare 1 Willes 541 (“Serjt. Hawkins (though a very learned pains-taking man) is plainly mistaken in his History of the Pleas of the Crown ... where he understands Lord Coke as not excluding the Jews from being witnesses, but only Heathens... . I shall therefore take it for granted... . [A]lmost ever since the Jews have returned into England, they have been admitted to be sworn as witnesses”), with 1 Atk. 44 (“Serjeant Hawkins in his Pleas of the Crown, though a very learned and pains taking man, is mistaken in his notion of lord Coke’s opinion; long before his time, and ever since the Jews returned to England, they have been constantly admitted as witnesses”), and 2 Eq. Cas. Abr. 402 (“Hawkins, tho’ a very Pains-taking Man, is, I think, plainly mistaken in his [Pleas of the Crown] where he understands him otherwise. I shall therefore take this for granted”), and Lincoln’s Inn Manuscript, 1144 (“Serj[ean]t Hawkins in his [Pleas of the Crown] is mistaken in his Opinion of my Lord Co[ke]. I take it for granted my Lord Coke meant Infidels generally, & that lessens the Authority of what he says, for Jews were admitted before his time & since”).

48. See Lincoln’s Inn Manuscript, 1146 (“The best Evidence, that the Party can procure must be rece[ive]d; But if better Evidence is produced on the other Side, the first is to be rejected; As if a Copy of a Deed be offered in Evidence & on the other Side the original is produced & differs from the copy. So if an Infidel who believes only a Reward & Punishment in this world be contradicted by a Christian”). For more on the approach to evidence law that led to this view, see notes 60 and 62 and accompanying text.

49. Christians generally interpreted the Old Testament, shared by the Jewish faith, as supporting the existence of a future state; see, for example, The Religious Magazine or Spirit of the Foreign Theological Journals and Reviews 2 (1828): 17; and Richard Graves, “A Future State Known to the Jews,” in The Whole Works of Richard Graves, 4 vols., ed. Richard Hastings Graves (Dublin: William Curry Jr. & Co., 1840), 2:288, but concerns about Jewish beliefs occasionally cropped up. See, for example, Edward Livingston to M[ordecai] M[anuel] Noah, [1825], Edward Livingston Papers, Princeton University (“Does the [Jewish] sect which denied the existence of a future state still subsist? Is it numerous? Are there any congregations of them in the U.S.[?]”); see also Jacob Rush, “The Nature of an Oath Stated and Explained,” in Charges and Extracts of Charges, on Moral and Religious Subjects; Delivered at Sundry Times, by the Honorable Jacob Rush (Philadelphia: D. Hogan, 1803), 29 (“the sanction of rewards and punishments is more fully revealed by the Christian religion, and consequently the degree of guilt in transgressing the rules of moral duty, must be greater”). For a discussion of the treatment of Jewish witnesses in English courts after Omichund, see Karen A. Macfarlane, “‘Does He Know the Danger of an Oath’? Oaths, Religion, Ethnicity and the Advent of the Adversarial Criminal Trial in the Eighteenth Century,” Immigrants & Minorities 31 (2013): 334–36.

50. Many scholars have noted this shift in the epistemological underpinnings of English evidence rules. See, for example, Brewer, By Birth or Consent, 162–74. The erosion of status-based rules was part of a broader evolution in English law. See, for example, Duncan Kennedy, “The Structure of Blackstone’s Commentaries,” Buffalo Law Review 28 (1979): 299.

-- Testimonial Exclusions and Religious Freedom in Early America, by Jud Campbell, University of Richmond, School of Law, jcampbe4@richmond.edu


We were conveyed in a Hackery [A coach drawn by oxen.] to the camp the 21st of June, in the morning, and soon loaded with fetters, and stowed all four in a seapoy's tent, about four feet long, three wide, and about three high; so that we were half in, half out: All night it rained severely. Dismal as this was, it appeared a paradise compared with our lodging the preceding night. Here I became covered from head to foot with large painful boils, the first symptom of my recovery; for until these appeared, my fever did not leave me. I

On the morning of the 22d, they marched us to town in our fetters, under the scorching beams of an intense hot sun, and lodged us at the Dock-head in the open small Veranda, fronting the river, where we had a strong guard over us, commanded by Bundo Sing Hazary, an officer under Mhir Muddon. Here the other gentlemen broke out likewise in boils all over their bodies (a happy circumstance, which, as I afterwards learned, attended every one who came out of the Black-Hole).

On our arrival at this place, we soon were given to understand, we should be embarked for Muxadabad, [The capital of Bengal.] where I think you have never been; and since I have brought you thus far, you may as well take this trip with us, likewise. I have much leisure on my hands at present; and, you know, you may choose your leisure for perusal.

We set out on our travels from the Dock-head the 24th in the afternoon, and were embarked on a large Wollack, [ A large boat.] containing part of Bundo Sing's plunder, &c. She bulged a-shore a little after we set off, and broke one of her floor timbers: however they pushed on, though she made so much water she could hardly swim. Our bedstead and bedding were a platform of loose unequal bamboos laid on the bottom timbers: so that when they had been negligent in bailing, we frequently waked with half of us in the water. We had hardly any clothes to our bodies, and nothing but a bit of mat, and a bit or two of old gunny-bag, which we begged at the Dock-head to defend us from the sun, rains, and dews. Our food only rice, and the water along-side, which, you know, is neither very clean, nor very palatable, in the rains: but there was enough of it without scrambling.

In short, Sir, though our distresses in this situation, covered with tormenting boils, and loaded with irons, will be thought, and doubtless were, very deplorable; yet the grateful consideration of our being so providentially a remnant of the saved, made every thing else appear light to us. Our rice and water-diet, designed as a grievance to us, was certainly our Preservation: for, could we (circumstanced as we were) have indulged in flesh and wine, we had died beyond all doubt.

When we arrived at Hougly fort, I wrote a short letter to governor Bisdom (by means of a pencil and blank leaf of a volume of Archbishop Tillotson's sermons given us by one of our guard, part of his plunder) advising him of our miserable plight. He had the humanity to dispatch three several boats after us, with fresh provisions, liquors, clothes, and money; neither of which reached us. But, "Whatever is, is right." Our rice and water were more salutary and proper for us.

Matters ridiculous and droll abundantly occurred in the course of our trip. But these I will postpone for a personal recital, that I may laugh with you, and will only mention, that my hands alone being free from imposthumes, I was obliged for some time to turn nurse, and feed my poor distressed companions.

When we came opposite to Santipore, they found the Wollack would not be able to proceed further, for want of water in the river; and one of the guard was sent ashore to demand of the Zemindar [Zamindar] [A proprietor of land.] of that district, light boats to carry prisoners of state under their charge to Muxadabad. The Zemindar, giving no credit to the fellow, mustered his guard of pykes, beat him, and drove him away.

This, on the return of the Burkandass, raised a most furious combustion. Our Jemmautdaar ordered his people to arms, and the resolution was to take the Zemindar and carry him bound a prisoner to Muxadabad. Accordingly they landed with their fire-arms, swords, and targets; when it occurred to one mischievous mortal amongst them, that the taking me with them, would be a proof of their commission, and the high offence the Zemindar had committed.

Being immediately lugged ashore, I urged the impossibility of my walking, covered as my legs were with boils, and several of them in the way of my fetters; and entreated, if I must go, that they would for the time take off my irons, as it was not in my power to escape from them; for they saw I was hardly able to stand. But I might as well have petitioned tigers, or made supplication to the wind. I was obliged to crawl: They signified to me, it was now my business to obey, and that I should remember, I was not then in the Kella of Allynagore. [The name given to Calcutta, by the Suba, after the capture.] Thus was I marched in a scorching sun, near noon, for more than a mile and half; my legs running in a stream of blood from the irritation of my irons, and myself ready to drop every step with excessive faintness and unspeakable pain. "

When we came near the Cutcherry of the district, the Zemindar with his pikes was drawn up ready to receive us; but as soon as they presented me to him as a prisoner of state, estimated and valued to them at four lack of Rupees [50,000 £.] he confessed himself sensible of his mistake, and made no further show of resistance. The Jemmautdaar seized him, and gave orders to have him bound and sent to the boat: but on his making further submission, and promising to get boats from Santipore to send after us, and agreeing to pay them for the trouble he had caused, he was released, and matters accommodated.

I was become so very low and weak by this cruel travel, that it was some time before they would venture to march me back; and the "hard-hearted villains," for their own sakes, were at last obliged to carry me part of the way, and support me the rest, covering me from the sun with their shields. A poor fellow, one of our Under-Gomastaus of Santipore, seeing me at the Cutcherry, knew me, and, with tears in his eyes, presented me with a bunch of plantains, the half of which my guard plundered by the way.

We departed from hence directly, in expectation of boats following us, but they never came; and the next day (I think the last of June) they pressed a small open fishing-dingy, and embarked us on that, with two of our guard only; for in fact, any more would have sunk her. Here we had a bed of bamboos, something softer, I think, than those of the great boat; that is, they were something smoother, but we were so distressed for room, that we could not stir without our fetters bruising our own, or each others boils; and were in woeful distress indeed, not arriving at Muxadabad until the 7th of July in the afternoon. We were all this while exposed to one regular succession of heavy rain, or intense sunshine, and nothing to defend us from either.

But then don't let me forget our blessings; for by the good-nature of one of our guard, Shaike Bodul, we now and then latterly got a few plantains, onions, parched rice, with Jaggree, [Molasses.] and the bitter green called Curella: all which were to us luxurious indulgencies, and made the rice go down deliciously.

On the 7th of July, early in the morning, we came in sight of the French factory. I had a letter prepared for Mr. Law the Chief, and prevailed with my friend Bodul, to put to there. On the receipt of my letter, Mr. Law, with much politeness and humanity, came down to the water-side, and remained near an hour with us. He gave the Shaike a genteel present for his civilities, and offered him a considerable reward and security, if he would permit us to land for an hour's refreshment; but he replied, his head would pay for the indulgence. After Mr. Law had given us a supply of cloaths [clothes], linen, provisions, liquors, and cash, we left his factory with grateful hearts and compliments.

'We could not, as you may imagine, long resist touching our stock of provisions; but however temperate we thought ourselves, we were all disordered more or less by this first indulgence.
A few hours after I was seized with a painful inflammation in my right leg and thigh.

Passing by our fort and factory at Cossimbuzar, raised some melancholy reflections amongst us. About four in the afternoon we landed at Muxadabad, and were conducted to, and deposited in an open stable, not far from the Suba's palace in the city.

This march, I will freely confess to you, drew tears of disdain and anguish of heart from me; thus to be led like a felon, a spectacle to the inhabitants of this populous city! My soul could not support itself with any degree of patience; the pain too arising from my boils, and inflammation of my leg, added not a little, I be1ieve, to the depression of my spirits.

Here we had a guard of Moors placed on one side of us, and a guard of Gentoos on the other; and being destined to remain in this place of purgatory, until the Suba returned to the city, I can give you no idea of our sufferings. The immense crowd of spectators, who came from all quarters of the city to satisfy their curiosity, so blocked us up from morning fill night, that I may truly say we narrowly escaped a second suffocation, the weather proving exceeding sultry.

The first night after our arrival in the stable, I was attacked by a fever; and that night and the next day, the inflammation of my leg and thigh greatly increased: but all terminated the second night in a regular fit of the gout in my right-foot and ankle; the first and last fit of this kind I ever had. How my irons agreed with this new visitor I leave you to judge; for I could not by any entreaty obtain liberty for so much as that poor leg.

During our residence here, we expected every act of humanity and friendship from Monf. Law and Mynheer Vernet, the French and Dutch Chiefs of Cossimbuzar, who left no means unessayed to procure our release. Our provisions were regularly sent us from the Dutch Tanksal [The Dutch Mint near Muxadabad.] in Coriemabad; and we were daily visited by Messrs. Ross and Ekstone, the Chief and Second there; and indeed received such instances of commiseration and affection from Mynheer Ross, as will ever claim my most grateful remembrance.

The whole body of Armenian merchants too were most kind and friendly to us; particularly Aga Manuel Satoor: we were not a little indebted to the obliging good-natured behaviour of Messrs. Hastings and Chambers, who gave us as much of their company as they could. They had obtained their liberty by the French and Dutch Chiefs becoming bail for their appearance. This security was often tendered for us, but without effect.

The 11th of July the Suba arrived in the city, and with him Bundoo Sing, to whose house we were removed that afternoon in a Hackery; for I was not able to put my foot to the ground. Here we were confirmed in a report which had before reached us, that the Suba, on his return to Houghly, made inquiry for us when he released Messieurs Watts and Collett, &c. with intention to release us also; and, that he had expressed some resentment at Mhir Muddon for having so hastily sent us up to Muxadabad. This proved a very pleasing piece of intelligence to us; and gave us reason to hope the issue would be more favorable to us than we expected.

Though we were here lodged in an open Bungulo only, yet we found ourselves relieved from the crowd of people which had stifled us at the stable, and once more breathed the fresh air. We were treated with much kindness and respect by Bundoo Sing, who generally passed some time or other of the day with us, and feasted us with hopes of being soon released.

The 15th we were conducted in a hackery to the Kella, [The seat of the Suba's residence in the city of Muxadabad.] in order to have an audience of the Suba, and know our fate.
We were kept above an hour in the sun opposite the gate; whilst here we saw several of his ministers brought out disgraced, in the custody of Sootapurdars, and dismissed from their employs, who but a few minutes before we had seen enter the Kella in the utmost pomp and magnificence.

Receiving advice, that we should have no audience or admittance to the Suba that day, we were deposited again at our former lodgings, the stable, to be at hand, and had the mortification of passing another night there.

The 16th in the morning an old female attendant on Allyverdy Cawn's Begum, [The dowager princess, grandmother of Surajud Dowla.] paid a visit to our Shaike and discoursed half an hour with him. Overhearing part of the conversation to be favorable to us, I obtained the whole from him; and learned, that at a feast the preceding night, the Begum had solicited our liberty, and that the Suba had promised he would release us on the morrow. This, you will believe, give us no small spirits; but at noon all our hopes were dashed by a piece of intelligence from Bundoo Sing, implying, that an order was prepared, and ready to pass the seal, for returning us in irons to Rajah Monickchund, governor of Allynagore, the name the Suba had given to Calcutta.

I need not tell you what a thunder-clap this proved to us in the very height of our flattering expectations; for I was, as to myself, well convinced I should never have got alive out of the hands of that rapacious harpy, who is a genuine Hindoo, [Hindoo or Gentoo.] in the very worst acceptation of the word; therefore, from that moment, gave up every hope of liberty.

Men in this state of mind are generally pretty easy: it is hope which gives anxiety. We dined and laid ourselves down to sleep; and for my own part, I never enjoyed a sounder afternoon's nap.

Towards five the Shaike waked me with notice, that the Suba would presently pass by to his palace of Mooteejeel. We roused, and desired the guard would keep the view clear for us. When the Suba came in sight, we made him the usual Salaam; and when he came abreast of us, he ordered his litter to stop, and us to be called to him. We advanced; and I addressed him in a short speech, setting forth our sufferings, and petitioned for our liberty. The wretched spectacle we made must, I think, have made an impression on a breast the most brutal; and if he is capable of pity or contrition, his heart felt it then. I think it appeared in spite of him in his countenance. He gave me no reply: but ordered a Sootapurdar and Chubdaar, immediately to see our irons cut off, and to conduct us wherever we chose to go, and to take care we received no trouble nor insult; and having repeated this order distinctly, directed his retinue to go on. As soon as our legs were free we took boat and proceeded to the Tanksall, where we were received and entertained with real joy and humanity.

Thus, my worthy friend, you see us restored to liberty, at a time when we could entertain no probable hope of ever obtaining it. The foundation of the alarm at noon was this: Moneloll, the Suba's Dewan, and some others, had in the morning taken no small pains to convince the Suba, "That, notwithstanding my losses at Allynagore, I was still possessed of enough to pay a considerable sum for my freedom; and advised the sending me to Monickebund, who would be better able to trace out the remainder of my effects." To this, I was afterwards informed, the Suba replied: "It may be; if he has any thing left, let him keep it: his sufferings have been great; he shall have his liberty." Whether this was the result of his own sentiments, or the consequence of his promise the night before to the old Begum, I cannot say; but believe, we owe our freedom partly to both.

Being myself once again at liberty, it is time I should release you, Sir, also from the unpleasing travel I have led you in this narrative of our distresses, from our entrance into that fatal Black-Hole. And, shall it after all be said, or even thought, that I can possibly have arraigned or commented too severely on a conduct which alone plunged us into these unequalled sufferings? I hope not.

I am,

DEAR SIR,

Your most faithful and obedient humble Servant,

J. Z. HOLWELL.

LIST OF THE SMOTHERED in the BLACK-HOLE Prison (exclusive of Sixty-nine, consisting of Dutch and English Serjeants, Corporals, Soldiers, Topaz's, Militia, Whites and Portuguese, whose Names I am unacquainted with), making on the whole, One hundred and twenty-three Persons.

Of Council.

E. Eyre, Esq.
Wm. Baillie, Esq.
The Reverend Jervas Bellamy.

Gentlemen in the Service.

Messr. Jenks
Messr. Revely
Messr. Law
Messr. Coales, Ens. Mil.
Messr. Valicourt
Messr. Jeb
Messr. Toriano
Messr. E. Page
Messr. S. Page
Messr. Grub
Messr. Street
Messr. Harod
Messr. P. Johnstone
Messr. Ballard
Messr. N. Drake
Messr. Carse
Messr. Knapton
Messr. Gosling
Messr. Bing
Messr. Dod
Messr. Dalrymple

Military Captains.

Clayton
Buchanan
Witherington

Lieutenants

Bishop
Hays
Blagg
Simson
Bellamy

Ensigns.

Paccard
Scot
Hastings
C. Wedderburn
Dumbleton, Ens. Mi.

Serjeants, &c.

Serjeant Major
Quarter-Master Serjeant

Serjeants of Militia.

Abraham
Cartwright
Bleau

Sea Captains.

Hunt
Osburne
Purnell, survived the night, but died next day.
Messrs. Carey
Stephenson
Guy
Porter
W. Parker
Caulker
Bendall
Atkinson
Leech, &c. &c.

LIST OF THOSE WHO SURVIVED THE BLACK-HOLE PRISON.

Messr. Holwell
Messr. Court
Messr. Secretary Cooke
Messr. Lushington
Messr. Burdet
Messr. Ens. Walcott
Mrs. Carey
Messr. Capt. Mills
Messr. Capt. Dickson
Messr. Mr. Moran
Messr. John Meadows, and 12 Military and Militia Blacks and Whites, some of whom recovered when the door was open.
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Re: India Tracts, by Mr. J. Z. Holwell, and Friends

Postby admin » Mon Nov 23, 2020 6:53 am

A Defence of Mr. Vansittart's Conduct, In Concluding the Treaty of Commerce With Mhir Cossim Aly Chawn, At Mongheer.
by a Servant of the Company, long resident in Bengal [J. Z. Holwell]

To the Proprietors of East-India Stock.

In the course of altercation on your affairs at Bengal, many injurious insinuations have been leveled at the conduct and character of the Gentleman now presiding there; amongst these, the greatest stress seems to be laid on two accusations; to wit, the Treaty of Commerce made at Mongheer, and a Model of Cannon presented by Mr. Vansittart to Mhir Cossim Aly Khan. The first of these charges may be (in part) founded on ignorance: the second, on premeditated malice only. From both we undertake to exculpate him. Much has been said touching the liberties of the Company's phirmaunds from the Great Moguls, and Confidence asserts they were given up by Mr. Vansittart in the treaty of commerce he concluded at Mongheer. Let us examine this fact first, and clear it of the veil of darkness that covers it.

When Mr. Surman (head of the embassy sent by the Company to the emperor Farrucseer, to solicit the last phirmaund, and explanation of former grants) was on his return to Fort William, he pitched his tents in the neighborhood of Moorshadabad, and having acquired from the Emperor a title and rank in the list of Omrahs, something superior to that which Jaffier Khan (then Suba of Bengal) bore, Mr. Surman expected the first visit. -- Jaffier Khan allowed Mr. Surman's superior title, but considering himself in rank the third Suba of the empire, and Vice-Roy of Bengal confirmed from court, thought the dignity of his post demanded the first visit from Mr. Surman: frequent messengers passed between them, touching this ceremonial, for the space of three days; but neither stooping, Mr. Surman struck his tents, and returned to Calcutta. -- Thus an injudicious punctilio in Mr. Surman destroyed all future cordiality with a man, on whom (from the nature and power of his post) so much depended, for the due execution of those phirmaunds granted by Farrucseer.

We grant, that in the original phirmaunds to the Company, there was a general liberty of trade given, without any exemption of particulars; but when this general trade, as well inland as exports and imports, continued to be exercised by the servants of the Company as formerly, Jaier Khan presently manifested the resentment he had conceived against the English at Mr. Surman's behavior to him; and though his predecessors had been troublesome on this head, yet he went much further.

His first operations were, refusing us the right of coinage, and spiriting up the Zemindars, proprietors of the 37 villages on the other side the Ganges; both ceded to the Company by the phirmaund. These Zemindars kept up their demands so high, and started so many difficulties with regard to parting with their lands, that the Company have never got possession of them to this day: from the same cause, their presidency of Fort William was eternally incommoded by a vexatious government's jurisdiction in the very heart of Calcutta, known by the names of Molungah, Simlea, &c.

His next step was to claim an executive right to the trade of three the most staple and lucrative articles of tobacco, salt and beetlenut; alleging, that from time immemorial none had presumed to trade in these three articles, but those who had his particular license and express purwannah. He signified these sentiments to the Presidency, and prohibited the Company or their servants trading in them for the future.

The Company's servants still persisting to trade in these articles, Jaffier Khan stopped the Company's whole trade and investment for Europe, which could never again obtain a currency, but by the payment of a severe mulct, of one, two, three, and sometimes four lacks of rupees at a time.

The same system of politics was pursued by his successor, until the Company at home being wearied out with continued advices of these contests between the Government and their Bengal servants, came to a resolution of relinquishing their right to the trade of these three articles, tobacco, salt, and beetle nut, for themselves, and strictly prohibited their servants ever interfering in them, on pain of immediate dismissal from their service; and these commands were repeatedly issued by the Court of Directors to their servants abroad. Henceforward the servants were content to trade in these articles under the covert of a Mahometan dustick (or passport). This they did on the best terms they possibly could with the Mahometan merchant, which was generally a consideration of 25 per cent, a consideration very moderate on articles that commonly yield a profit of 80 to 150 per cent. This 25 per cent was a clear profit, without risk, to the merchant who gave his name, provided he was in favor at the Durbar; but at the worst, he was always able to get off for paying 8 or 10 per cent customs on the trade he covered, and put the rest into his pocket. Sometimes a joint trade was entered into in co-partnership, though not always in equal proportions.

The continual abuse of the Company's dusticks, by their servants, has been for the space of forty years last past, another great cause for related just complaints from the Durbar; for thereby the Emperor was robbed of his legal customs on a considerable proportion of the trade of the provinces. -- As the nature of the Company's dustick, and the mischiefs arising from the abuse of it, must be little known to you; a short explanation of both, becomes here absolutely necessary to your information.

The Company's dustick is a passport for their trade, issued under their broad Persian Purwannah seal, or seal of office, signed by the President, and counter-signed by the Secretary to the Council, specifying the quantity, number, package and quality of the goods to be passed by virtue of that particular dustick, clear of all duties, let, hindrance, or obstructions from the Government's guards, and receipts of custom settled on different parts of the rivers and other inland parts of the provinces. -- The dustick was also occasionally issued by the chiefs of your subordinate factories, under the same formalities; and whether from the Presidency or Subordinates, always specified the place from whence the goods came, and where destined; and with the particulars before recited, were set forth both in English and Persian, and a register regularly kept of every dustick issued. The dustick was drawn in Persian, as well as English, because at every Government's chowkey there was stationed a Persian Moonspee (Writer or Secretary) on the part of the Government, who being a stranger to the English language, the Company's trade might otherwise be liable to obstruction, delay, loss and damage, by a longer detention in their boats at sometimes inclement seasons of the year.

Your servants, down to the junior Writer, were entitled to a dustick on application, for the protection of his private trade. The wisdom of first granting this liberty and indulgence, and the continuing it so long after the fatal consequences were visible, are points I will not here discuss. Let it suffice, that I say the abuse of it gave too just a handle to the Government for frequently putting a stop to the provision of your investment in every part of the provinces, for one, two, and sometimes three months together, until bought off by the payment of a high mulct, which generally grew higher the longer a stand was made against it. Thus have I known a contention of this kind, which might easily (in the beginning of an embargo laid on your investment) have been compromised for fifty or a hundred thousand rupees, cost you, at the end of two or three months, three or four lacks. Though the policy of the government was invariable in this particular of the abuse of the dustick, (as formerly touching our trading in the three prohibited articles of salt, tobacco and beetlenut) they never, before the times of the Subas Ally Verdy Khan and Surajad Dowla, meditated the attack and destruction of your forts and garrisons; these had new and particular motives; former Subas, on a transgression either in the one or the other of the two before-mentioned causes, put an immediate stop to the provision of your investments, by laying a prohibition on the weavers and others employed in your manufactures, surrounding your subordinates with guards, and cutting off supplies of provisions, &c. They knew the importance of your investments, and the seasons for the dispatch of it to Europe, and knew also you could hardly sustain yourselves under the failure of one year's returns; all this they were perfectly acquainted with, and therefore knew your servants must necessarily submit, sooner or later, to any terms they thought fit to impose: a consideration also, which should have determined your Presidency to finish every dispute of this kind with all possible expedition. I will not say these exactions would not have been made, had no real cause been given; light pretenses are sufficient for arbitrary governments to act upon; but where real cause existed, which (regarding the abuse of the dustick at least) was too truly the case, we cannot surely much wonder at it. But to explain the nature of this abuse of your dustick, so constantly the source of complaints from the durbar:

When youth first embark in your service, at the age of 15 or 16, it cannot be reasonably supposed they set out with any fixed principles of moral rectitude; consequently the good dispositions they may have acquired by a careful education, become too much liable to be perverted, by designing artful men. These young gentlemen, on their arrival in Bengal, entertain a servant, under the denomination of a Banian, who, in the general, soon becomes their master, and continues that power and influence over them, more or less, as long as they reside in India; but more especially, if the Banian happens to be possessed of a capital that can be assisting to his (nominal) master in trade, the young gentleman himself rarely having a capital of his own to begin with.

These Banians are either simply so, or merchants as well as Banians. In general, they have no principle to be the rule of their actions, but gain; this is their sole pursuit, and to accomplish it they stick at nothing, so they can guard against a detection of their rogueries. If they are Banians simply so called, they are mostly tools of some native merchant, whose principles of rectitude are not a whit better than the Banians.

The Seats (a Gentoo Cast, so called) and the other Company's Dadney merchants, who provided their investments until the year 1753, rarely before that period stooped to be Banians to the gentlemen in your service; but from that period, finding the measure was adopted for providing your investment by your own gomastahs or factors at the Arungs, they condescended to serve either in person or by Banians who were entirely dependent on them.

These Dadney merchants, whilst they continued in that employ, always had the address to bring down their own private goods and merchandise with the Company's, under the cover and protection of the same dustick; but being in the above-mentioned year stripped of that means of eluding the king's duties, they fixed on another which they knew had been for a long term successfully practiced by the Banians; that is, covering their trade by the Company's dusticks, obtained chiefly from your junior servants.

Various were the terms of this illicit compact; sometimes the Company's servant was entitled to 1/8th, 1/4th, or 1/2 of the profits on the trade so covered. At other times, with sorrow I speak it, your dustick was sold at various prices, from 200 to 25 rupees each; and to such a shameful prostitution did this trade in dusticks come to, that it was no uncommon thing to see on the register a trade of two lack per annum carried on in appearance by persons known never to have been worth five pounds in their lives, nor that had credit to this amount in your Presidency. Sometimes they engaged in a joint trade, the Banian or merchant finding the capital, in the course of which if your servants came in for 1/16th of the profits he was well off, but oftener was brought in debtor.

The Government's spies in the settlement were well acquainted with prostitutions and abuse of the Company's Dustick, and sent daily advices thereof to the Durbar, where it used to be often thrown out in terrorem, "that they had a long Dustick account to settle with the English." -- And Surajud Dowla in 1756, declared he would prove from vouchers in his possession "that the English had defrauded the King in his revenues, by covering the trade of his subjects with their Dusticks to the amount of one Corore and a half (one million five hundred thousand pound sterling) in the space of fifty years." Howsoever this charge was exaggerated, it is a truth, that the sum of the frauds arising from this illicit practice must have been very important.

Your Court of Directors were so sensible of the repeated abuse of this indulgence, that I think, there are no less than give and twenty STANDING ORDERS against it transmitted to your President and Council of Fort William from the year 1702 to 1756, each of these orders directing, on detection, restitution of the King's duties, immediate dismissal from the service, and the aggressor to be sent to England on the first returning ship; but notwithstanding these orders, and the utmost vigilance of your Council abroad to prevent this practice, it was found impossible. The strongest prohibitions, the most solemn oaths, proved ineffectual; and though it was notoriously known, that there was hardly any period of your service, that there were not some of your servants who had no visible means of subsisting, but on this trade of Dusticks; yet, strange to tell! we find few examples made of the aggressors on the records of the Company. This can be accounted for, only from the difficulty of full detection; but surely in this case, where the very existence of the Company was liable to be brought into hazard, strong and glaring presumption of the fact should have been deemed proof sufficient; the more especially, as it was long evident, nothing but examples made of this presumptive proof, would be capable of putting a total stop to a practice that had so often embroiled, and distressed your affairs; and was at last one of those causes assigned by Surajud Dowla, for that destruction brought on your Bengal settlements in 1756. These examples should not have been confined to your servants only, but should have been extended to the Black Merchant or Banian, suspected of being concerned with them; these should have been banished your settlements, and in flagrant instances delivered up to the government. Three examples of this kind, we dare say, would have effectually put a stop to this mischief for ever: We think some directions to the above purport and intention were sent out by your Court of Directors a few years ago, but they were never put in practice.

To draw our foregoing anecdotes into a smaller compass, we beg leave to remind you, that we have shown two principal causes that gave rise to every contest which happened between your servants and the Government, down to the time of Surajud Dowla, viz. Your servants trading in the three prohibited articles so often mentioned, and their abuse of the Company's Dustick, both repeatedly forbid by your Court of Directors under the severest and most positive restrictions, and yet both continued, and lately the one of them absolutely avowed, nay, even contended for by some of your servants with indecency, arrogance and violence; to the utter subversion of the laws and natural liberties of a country where you trade upon sufferance; as well as in defiance and disobedience of the reiterated commands of their masters at home.

Let us take a short view of this government in the year 1760, when you saw a Vice Roy at the head of it, raised by your servants from motives of justice, joined to the necessity of your affairs; confirmed by yourselves in the opinion and judgment of your Directors: Consider this Vice Roy making you princely donations of the most valuable parts of his country; then see your servants aiming to strip him of the remainder, the commercial legal duties which were to be his future support in that government you had promoted him to -- now see him driven from two of his provinces for not tamely submitting to arrogant impositions -- then surely you will blush for the reproaches so wantonly thrown upon the English name and nation. But to return more immediately to our subject.

Soon after Mr. Vansittart's arrival to the Government of Fort William, such was the licentious conduct of your servants, more particularly at your subordinates, in those articles of trade so often forbid both by the Company and Government, that continual complaints came in of the unbounded violences of them and their agents. Mr. Vansittart plainly saw, unless some remedy was applied, general confusion must ensue. He took a middle road, and formed a judicious plan that all parties ought to have been satisfied with, and, as he expresses it, would have reconciled all differences, if faithfully adhered to on both sides: The liberties of the Phirmaunds touching these contested articles, as well as the whole inland trade, had been given up and relinquished by the Company long ago. -- He has the merit of stipulating for the resuming those liberties, and preserving them in perpetuity on terms highly advantageous to every one engaged in it, as we have already made appear. It has been charged against him, that he concluded this Treaty of Commerce without the assent of his Council. -- That he was first invested with a discretional power has been proved beyond contradiction; and though it has been also insinuated, he suppressed and never acknowledged the receipt of a letter sent by the Council, revolting that power, and containing a dissent to the terms of the Treaty transmitted to them by Mr. Vansittart: -- yet -- if such a revocation and dissent was dispatched, it appears very extraordinary that his enemies have not produced a copy of it, since, in other matters less important, they have been so minute. -- Therefore it is no unreasonable conclusion to say, We believe no such letter was ever sent, -- or it would certainly have appeared against him. -- Another objection has been started against his conduct, for not giving due time for this Treaty taking place. To this we say, that possibly he thought this licentious contraband trade of your servants required an immediate check. -- And as they had engaged in it, in direct breach of their masters orders, and we fear in breach also of their covenants; it was but just they should suffer the consequences, for they surely had no title to indulgence. One objection only, to this Gentleman's conduct regarding this Treaty, remains unanswered; and that is the article by which he gives the decision of disputes into the hands of the Government's officers: but for this error he has so ingenuously apologized himself, that nothing but ill-nature could be capable of continuing it as a charge against him. However, had not the unhappy and ill-judged second deputation taken place, this error might easily have been retrieved, and overruled as soon as the inconveniences had been discovered.

Concerning the present of Cannon, (levelled at Mr. Vansittart's reputation only) -- the charge is so evidently malicious, as hardly to deserve a reply. -- It is a notorious truth, that at the capture of Cossimbuzar and Fort William, the Government had store both of cannon and field pieces with their carriages, which they had six months in their possession. -- Surajad Dowla had 20 of the latter so well constructed by his own people, that they could hardly be known from those made in Europe. But we will not affront your understanding, by dwelling longer in the refutation of a charge so repugnant to sense as well as decency.

FINIS.
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