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"the punishment of persons in the possession of power, who may be impelled by the provocation "of ambition, avarice, or vengeance, stronger than "the restrictions of integrity and honour, to the " violation of this just and wise maxim."

That the said Hastings, in thus departing from these his own principles, with a full and just sense of the guilt he would thereby incur, and in sacrificing the allies of this country "to the provocations "of ambition, avarice, or vengeance," in violation of the national faith and justice, did commit a gross and wilful breach of his duty, and was thereby guilty of an high crime and misdemeanor.

XV. REVENUES.

PART I.

THAT the property of the lands of Bengal is, according to the laws and customs of that country, an inheritable property, and that it is, with few exceptions, vested in certain natives, called Zemindars, or Landholders, under whom other natives, called Talookdars and Ryots, hold certain subordinate rights of property, or occupancy, in the said lands-that the said natives are Hindoos, and that their rights and privileges are grounded upon

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upon the possession of regular grants, a long serics of family succession, and fair purchase :—that it appears, that Bengal has been under the dominion of the Mogul, and subject to a Mahommedan Government, for above two hundred years:-that, while the Mogul Government was in its vigour, the property of Zemindars was held sacred; and that either by voluntary grant from the said Mogul, or by composition with him, the native Hindoos were left in the free, quiet, and undisturbed possession of their lands, on the single condition of paying a fixed, certain, and unalterable revenue, or quitrent, to the Mogul Government:-that this revenue, or quitrent, was called the Aussil Jumma, or original ground-rent, of the provinces, and was not increased from the time when it was first settled in 1573 to 1740, when the regular and effective Mogul Government ended :-that, from that time to 1765, invasions, usurpations, and various revolutions took place in the Government of Bengal, in consequence of which the country was considerably reduced and impoverished, when the EastIndia Company received from the present Mogul emperour, Shâ Alum, a grant of the Dewanny, or ⚫ collection of the Revenues-that about the year 1770 the provinces of Bengal and Bahar were visited with a dreadful famine and mortality, by which at least one third of the inhabitants perished: -that Warren Hastings, Esquire, has declared,

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"that

"that he had always heard the loss of inhabitants "reckoned at a third, and in many places near

(c one half, of the whole; and that he knew not

by what means such a loss could be recruited in "four or five years, and believed it impossible." That nevertheless the revenue was violently kept up to its former standard, that is, in the two years immediately preceding the appointment of the said Warren Hastings to the government of FortWilliam; in consequence of which the remaining two thirds of the inhabitants were obliged to pay for the lands now left without cultivation; and that from the year 1770 to the year 1775 the country had languished, and the evil continued enhancing every day-that the said Warren Hastings, in a letter to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, dated 1st September 1772, declared, "that the lands had suffered unheard-of depopu"lation by the famine and mortality of 1769;"that the collections, violently kept up to their former standard, had added to the distress of "the country, and threatened a general decay of "the revenue, unless immediate remedies were

applied to prevent it." That the said Warren Hastings has declared, "that, by intrusting the "collections to the hereditary Zemindars, the "people would be treated with more tenderness, "the rents more improved, and cultivation more likely to be encouraged; that they have a

perpetual interest in the country; that their "inheritance cannot be removed; that they are "the proprietors; that the lands are their estates, "and their inheritance; that, from a long con❝tinuance of the lands in their families, it is to be "concluded they have rivetted an authority in "the district, acquired an ascendency over the "minds of the Ryots, and ingratiated their affections. That, from continuing the lands under "the management of those, who have a natural " and perpetual interest in their prosperity, solid advantages might be expected to accrue: that "the Zemindar would be less liable to failure or "deficiencies than the farmer, from the perpetual

interest, which the former hath in the country, " and because his inheritance cannot be removed; " and it would be improbable, that he should risk "the loss of it by eloping from his district, which "is too frequently practised by a farmer when he " is hard pressed for the payment of his balances, "and as frequently predetermined when he re"ceives his farm :"-that notwithstanding all the preceding declarations made by the said Warren Hastings of the loss of one third of the inhabitants, and general decline of the country, he did, immediately after his appointment to the Government, in the year 1772, make an arbitrary settlement of the Revenues for five years, at a higher rate than had ever been received before, and with a

progressive

progressive and accumulating increase on each of the four last years of the said settlement.

That notwithstanding the right of property and inheritance, repeatedly acknowledged by the said Warren Hastings to be in the Zemindars, and other native landholders; and notwithstanding he had declared," that the security of private property is the greatest encouragement to industry, on which the wealth of every state depends; the said Warren Hastings, nevertheless, in direct violation of those acknowledged rights and principles, did universally let the lands of Bengal in farm for five years; thereby destroying all the rights of private property of the Zemindars; thereby delivering the management of their estates to farmers, and transferring by a most arbitrary and unjust act of power the whole landed property of Bengal from the owners to strangers :-that, to accomplish this iniquitous purpose, he, the said Warren Hastings, did put the lands of Bengal up to a pretended publick auction, and invited all persons to make proposals for farming the same, thereby encouraging strangers to bid against the proprietors; in consequence of which not only the said proprietors were ousted of the possession and management of their estates, but a great part of the lands fell into the hands of the Banyans, or principal black servants of British subjects, connected with and protected by the Government:

and