The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X | Page 7

indeed not hid very deep, not above one between him and the farmer,
namely, his banian directly, or some other black person to represent
him. But some have so managed the affair, that, when you inquire who
the farmer is,--Was such a one farmer? No. Cantoo Baboo? No.
Another? No,--at last you find three deep of fictitious farmers, and you
find the European gentlemen, high in place and authority, the real
farmers of the settlement. So that the zemindars were dispossessed, the
country racked and ruined, for the benefit of an European, under the
name of a farmer: for you will easily judge whether these gentlemen
had fallen so deeply in love with the banians, and thought so highly of
their merits and services, as to reward them with all the possessions of
the great landed interest of the country. Your Lordships are too grave,
wise, and discerning, to make it necessary for me to say more upon that
subject. Tell me that the banians of English gentlemen, dependants on
them at Calcutta, were the farmers throughout, and I believe I need not
tell your Lordships for whose benefit they were farmers.

But there is one of these who comes so nearly, indeed so precisely,
within this observation, that it is impossible for me to pass him by.
Whoever has heard of Mr. Hastings's name, with any knowledge of
Indian connections, has heard of his banian, Cantoo Baboo. This man is
well known in the records of the Company, as his agent for receiving
secret gifts, confiscations, and presents. You would have imagined that
he would at least have kept him out of these farms, in order to give the
measure a color at least of disinterestedness, and to show that this
whole system of corruption and pecuniary oppression was carried on
for the benefit of the Company. The Governor-General and Council
made an ostensible order by which no collector, or person concerned in
the revenue, should have any connection with these farms. This order
did not include the Governor-General in the words of it, but more than
included him in the spirit of it; because his power to protect a
farmer-general in the person of his own servant was infinitely greater
than that of any subordinate person. Mr. Hastings, in breach of this
order, gave farms to his own banian. You find him the farmer of great,
of vast and extensive farms. Another regulation that was made on that
occasion was, that no farmer should have, except in particular cases,
which were marked, described, and accurately distinguished, a greater
farm than what paid 10,000l. a year to government. Mr. Hastings, who
had broken the first regulation by giving any farm at all to his banian,
finding himself bolder, broke the second too, and, instead of 10,000l.,
gave him farms paying a revenue of 130,000l. a year to government.
Men undoubtedly have been known to be under the dominion of their
domestics; such things have happened to great men: they never have
happened justifiably in my opinion. They have never happened
excusably; but we are acquainted sufficiently with the weakness of
human nature to know that a domestic who has served you in a near
office long, and in your opinion faithfully, does become a kind of
relation; it brings on a great affection and regard for his interest. Now
was this the case with Mr. Hastings and Cantoo Baboo? Mr. Hastings
was just arrived at his government, and Cantoo Baboo had been but a
year in his service; so that he could not in that time have contracted any
great degree of friendship for him. These people do not live in your
house; the Hindoo servants never sleep in it; they cannot eat with your
servants; they have no second table, in which they can be continually

about you, to be domesticated with yourself, a part of your being, as
people's servants are to a certain degree. These persons live all abroad;
they come at stated hours upon matters of business, and nothing more.
But if it had been otherwise, Mr. Hastings's connection with Cantoo
Baboo had been but of a year's standing; he had before served in that
capacity Mr. Sykes, who recommended him to Mr. Hastings. Your
Lordships, then, are to judge whether such outrageous violations of all
the principles by which Mr. Hastings pretended to be guided in the
settlement of these farms were for the benefit of this old, decayed,
affectionate servant of one year's standing: your Lordships will judge of
that.
I have here spoken only of the beginning of a great, notorious system of
corruption, which branched out so many ways and into such a variety
of abuses, and has afflicted that kingdom with such horrible evils from
that day to this, that I will