affairs go on in the same wretched train in which they hitherto have been conducted.

People are greatly mistaken if they imagine there can be the responsibility in India that there is here, and by similar means. In this country facts can be got at with ease; the conduct of men is under the public eye, and if they betray the trust reposed in them, it is possible to come at the means of detecting their guilt. But how are you to procure evidence of crimes committed in so distant a country? The time necesfor such a purpose would suffer any mischief to be carried on, perhaps to the total ruin of our possessions.

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I would have strict, literal, and absolute obedience to orders, in all those whom I entrusted with the administration of government in that country; that we might know the ground upon which we were treading, and be able to form some judgment of the real state of our affairs in that part of our possessions. This House has already passed certain resolutions, and has pledged itself to see them put in execution; an opportunity is now presented, the matter is now in issue, and if it is suffered to fall to the ground without a spirited and a firm examination, all inquiry may sleep for ever, and every idea of punishment be buried in oblivion.

This is, as I have said before, a matter of the utmost importance, and one which admits not of delay. If these principles are founded in truth, justice, and good policy, it is incumbent on you to lose no time to bring them into effect; and, by a striking example, to convince the world that the principles of equity and moderation, which you have held out, were not intended to deceive; and that you did not begin the work of reformation without being determined to carry it on until it should have its full effect, by restoring happiness, and preventing oppression throughout our dominions in Asia.

I have thought it proper, Sir, to shew the House that my opinion is not altered, and to declare that I do not see any thing hitherto done which is in any respect likely to place our affairs in that quarter upon a stable and prosperous basis. Deeming, as I do, the affairs of India to be weighty to the last degree, I trust I need make no apology for endeavouring to impress upon the House the only mode of governing these possessions, that I am confident can ever be attended with success, namely, that of responsibility to this House. With this principle the present inquiry is most intimately connected. If you suffer it to be evaded, an abandonment of all control over your people in India must undoubtedly follow. Mankind will always form their judgments by effects; and observing that this man, who has been the culprit of this nation, and of this House, for a series of years, is absolved, without a

regular trial of his crimes, they will easily conclude, that another may find the same mode of coming at protection, and that fear of punishment need not, at any time, interrupt the pursuit of gain.

I would again, Sir, before I sit down, shortly revert to the matter immediately before us. The principles of morals are to be drawn from books, and from the tongues of men, not from their actions. The fact is, indeed, too true, that men have in all ages been little governed in their actions by equity and justice; but seldom has it happened, that they have openly avowed that they have not been directed in their conduct by rules so generally established as the foundation of all intercourse among mankind. The war against the Rohillas carries with it so great an abandonment of all the great leading principles of morality, that it is astonishing that any man can attempt to defend it. We should reflect that our character is at stake and undoubtedly we should preserve that fair and unsullied. It is natural to trust in a fair character; and when that is lost, all confidence is carried with it.

We should consider that Mr. Hastings himself does this. He acts upon the character of nations: he states the character of the Rohillas as a reason for their being exterminated. If we were to go on this principle, and exterminate every nation of that description, we should soon leave the face of the earth thinly inhabited; and I am afraid our own country would not be able to stand up with much confidence in defence of its own character, if it should give its assent to such barbarous doctrines. But there was nothing in the character of the Rohillas to excite the indignation, or draw down the resent ment of any nation, much less of Great Britain. They were a brave people, and, what is singular, the only free people in India. They governed the country of which they were possessed with a mildness of which its very flourishing condition, so as to be called the garden of Hindostan, is an undeniable proof; they were endowed with all those national virtues which Britons have been accustomed to admire, and which form a strong chain of connection between countries which enjoy the blessings of liberty. Ought not such a people to have met with sympathy and regard in the feelings of this nation? Ought not a cause such as theirs to have interested a British bosom? To mark out such a people as the objects of avarice, as the victims of unprovoked resentment, or to abandon them to the rod of tyranny and oppression-what conduct could be more derogatory to the character of a nation which enjoys the influence of liberty? What mode of procedure could be more disgraceful to the honour and humanitý of the British name?

An honourable gentleman (Mr. Grenville) has spoken of the religion and tenets of the Rohillas as an argument for their destruction. I think he said, they were of some particular sect of musselmen, the sect of Omar, and different from Hindoos, the original inhabitants of the country. Men, Sir, have been persecuted on account of their religion; but that an argument of this kind should be made use of at this time of day, to palliate the crime of exterminating a nation, is a matter I do not understand. Of what consequence is it to the question of the justice of the war, whether their tenets or their practice differ from those around them? I am indeed sorry to hear such doctrine as the justice of this war, defended by a young man, who, from his situation in office, gives us reason to dread, that on principles like these, the new government in India is to be established.

The whole of this business is now before you. You are now to decide, and I call upon you to reflect, that the character, the honour, and the prosperity of this nation de pends on your decision. I have appealed to what is called the passions, that is, the indignation of mankind against enormous guilt, against violence and oppression. It has been my opinion, that we ought, in this manner, always to feel with regard to Indian delinquents. The people of Hindostan have a claim upon our protection, upon our pity, and their distresses call loudly for vengeance upon their oppressors. Sixty thousand Rohillas driven like a herd of deer across the Ganges from their houses and from their lands, to perish through want of subsistence, or depend on the precarious bounty of nations with whom they had no connection; these circumstances excite you to take vengeance on those who have abused your authority, and tyrannized over them! The Begum and other women, and the princes of that wretched nation, who, in vain, pleaded for relief from the hands of your servants, call upon you to vindicate own character, and to let the guilt fall upon those who have deserved it.

your

We ought, it is said, to be counsel for the prisoner. If a man is not able to plead his own cause, it is right to allow him every indulgence, and to put it in his power to bring forward a fair state of the circumstances of his case. Truth is the object which we wish to grasp, and every mode of bringing that before us is to be attended to. My duty is, when I find great crimes, to state them, and that not merely on my own authority, but from the accounts of those who were eye witnesses. It is our duty to bring a culprit to justice. Mr. Hastings is the culprit of the nation. He has infringed our orders, and we have bound ourselves to call

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him to account. Whatever may be his services, they cannot be pleaded here: they never can be considered as preventing his offences from being inquired into: if he is guilty, he ought to suffer the punishment due to them.

My right honourable friend has brought forward his_accusations openly and boldly. He did not basely slander Mr. Hastings, when he was not present, and then meanly hide himself behind some pitiful evasion; but he has come forward with his charges to his face, and given him a fair opportunity of clearing his innocence to the world. Mr. Hastings has declared his wish to meet it. Why, then, will you not suffer it to take its regular course? I say again, where is the danger? Where the injury? Nothing but good can result from it to your government in India. Lord Cornwallis has been just sent out, with powers greater than were ever entrusted to any governor. By what rule is he to frame his conduct? Are those which have been laid down, and are now disapproved of by this House, to regulate it? Or is he to govern himself by the example of Mr. Hastings, of whose management this House must, if they acquit him on this business, be supposed to approve?

My right honourable friend has singled out this transaction, because it has two features, which strongly mark the political conduct of Mr. Hastings;-contempt of the orders of his superiors, and an entire disregard of all principles of justice, moderation, and equity. These pervade all his actions, the whole system of his conduct, and appear to have taken entire possession of his mind. This transaction with Sujah Dowlah, and this war against the Rohillas, will give you an idea of his character, much better than any words can display it. These two characters are alleged to be contained in this charge which is brought against him. It remains for you to decide. And allow me again to intreat you to remember, that you are not pronouncing merely on the merits of an individual, but you are laying down a system of conduct for all future governors in India. The point is at issue. Your decision is most serious and important. pray to Heaven it may be such as will do you honour!

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At half past seven in the morning the committee divided, when there appeared for the motion 67: against it 119.

ARTICLES OF CHARGE AGAINST MR. HASTINGS - BENARES

THE

CHARGE.

June 13.

order of the day for going into a committee on the charges against Warren Hastings, esquire, having been read, the Speaker left the chair, and Mr. St. Andrew St. John took his seat at the table.

Mr. Fox then rose, and began a most able and eloquent speech with observing, that as something like censure had been cast on his right honourable friend, Mr. Burke, when the committee were last assembled, for having introduced a considerable deal of preliminary matter, generally allusive to the subject of the several charges, not then under immediate consideration, but, in his mind, extremely pertinent and extremely essential, and as he was convinced, that if censure could be at all deservedly imputed to his right honourable friend on such an account, it might with much more foundation and propriety be imputed to him, where he to attempt to take up the time of the committee, with again going into the discussion of any topics not immediately connected with the subject to which he meant that day to call their attention; he, therefore, would make no preliminary observations whatever, but proceed directly to the matter upon which he meant to found the motion, which he should have the honour to offer to the committee, namely, to the third charge; to that relative to the conduct of Mr. Hastings respecting Benares.

The committee, he trusted, as well from the preliminary remarks and arguments of his right honourable friend, as from what had passed within those walls, were so far familiar with the subject of all the charges, that he should find it no very difficult task to make them perfectly masters of the facts to which he meant to draw their attention. He would begin with the year 1770, in which Bulwant Sing, the Prince or Zemindar of the province of Benares, died, and the presidency of Calcutta interfered through the medium of Captain Harper, to procure a confirmation of the succession to his son, Cheit Sing, and an agreement was entered into between that Rajah and the Vizier Nabob of Oude, of whom he purchased, for valuable considerations, his right and inheritance in his zemindary, or by whatever other name it might be called. When Mr. Hastings came over as president of the