supreme council of Calcutta, he found Cheit Sing in possession, and in 1773, in the month of October, he was, by a sunnud granted to him by Sujah Dowlah, obtained by the instance of Mr. Hastings, acknowledged zemindar of the province. In 1774, the governor general and council appointed by act of parliament, obtained the sovereignty paramount of the government of the province of Benares; and to obviate any misconstruction of the treaty, with regard to the tenure of the Rajah of Benares, Mr. Hastings himself proposed at the board, that whatever provision might in the said treaty be made for the interest of the company, the same should be "without an encroachment on the rights of the rajah, or the engagements actually subsisting with him." On the transfer of the sovereignty, Mr. Hastings proposed a new grant to be conveyed in new instruments to the Rajah Cheit Sing, conferring upon him farther privileges; and these were the addition of the sovereign rights of the mint, and of the right of criminal justice of life and death; Mr. Hastings proposing the resolution for that purpose in council, in which were these words," that the perpetual and independent possession of the zemindary of Benares, and its dependencies, be confirmed and guaranteed to the Rajah Cheit Sing and his heirs, for ever, subject only to the annual payment of the revenue hitherto paid to the late vizier, &c, That no other demand be made on him, either by the Nabob of Oude, or this government." This resolution clearly established the independency of Cheit Sing, and shewed it was the aim of Mr. Hastings to make him independent. Mr. Fox also read farther in confirmation of this, the following article of the treaty proposed by Mr. Hastings, on the 5th of July 1775; "That while the rajah shall continue faithful to these engagements, and punctual in his payments, and shall pay due obedience to the authority of this government, no more demands shall be made upon him of any kind; nor on any pretence whatsoever shall any person be allowed to interfere with his authority, or to disturb the peace of his country." Which article was by the other members of the council assented to.

The committee would, therefore, please particularly to carry in their mind, that Cheit Sing had been declared independent, at the express instance of Mr. Hastings, that it was actually stipulated, that no more demands should be made upon him, besides his annual tribute, and that the stipulation might be the more clear and intelligible, the words "of any kind" had been added. And yet, shortly after the deaths of Sir John Clavering and Mr. Monson, Mr. Hastings, without any previous general communication with the

board, by a minute of consultation, made an extraordinary demand on the rajah of five lacks of rupees. Exorbitant, indeed, was this demand, and incompatible with the stipulated terms of the rajah being declared independent in 1774! How were the words "no more demands of any kind” to be interpreted? And by what principle of construction was the meaning of the stipulation to be made to bear out this? The demand, however, was made, and the rajah murmured at it, and begged that he might be permitted to pay it by instalments, and with his quarterly payments; but Mr. Hastings peremptorily insisted on its being paid by a certain day, when it was accordingly paid, though on the express condition that the exaction should continue but for one year, and should not be drawn into precedent. Notwithstanding this, the same demand was repeated a second year, and, after some fruitless murmuring and complaint on the part of the rajah, paid; a third year a like demand was made, and in like manner satisfied. Various and extraordinary were the circumstances of vexation and despotism, under which these several demands were made, such as a threat at one time, to march the English company's forces in to the province of Benares to compel payment, &c.

Mr. Fox stated Mr. Hastings's defence of himself against these facts, and argued upon both the charge and the defence collectively and comparatively. He next spoke of the requisition for all the cavalry that Cheit Sing could spare; and observed, that General Clavering had by a minute recommended it to the rajah to keep up two thousand. From whence he inferred, that Cheit Sing was left at his discretion to keep up as many as he chose, and to send that number only which he could spare. Mr. Hastings, however, afterwards demanded, through his agent, Mr. Markham, two thousand, afterwards fifteen hundred, and, after that, he lowered the requisition to one thousand. But Cheit Sing sent word, that he had but thirteen hundred, and offered only five hundred, declaring that he could spare no more, but at the same time substituted in lieu of the remainder five hundred matchlock men. Upon this, Mr. Hastings said, in his defence, "my patience was exhausted by such repeated acts of contumacy"-an expression the absurdity of which might be unanswerably exemplified, by recapitulating the facts to which it applied. Mr. Hastings, after stipulating that no more demand of any kind than the annual tribute should be made upon the rajah, demanded first five lacks of rupees, which were paid, but with some murmuring; he next demanded five lacks more, which were also paid, though with some murmuring; he again demanded a third five lacks, and these

again were paid. He then called for two thousand cavalry. Cheit Sing sent him word he had but thirteen hundred, and those distributed through his territories; that he could spare no more than five hundred, and those he should have. Would ever mortal have construed such conduct as this into contumacy but Mr. Hastings, who says, "his patience was exhausted by such repeated acts of contumacy;" and adds, that "he determined to convert them into an advantage for the company's affairs." Mr. Fox upon this monstrous determination reasoned with great warmth and energy, appealing to the committee whether they ever before heard of such an idea as punishing men, not for the great end of all punishment, example, but-in order to convert it into an advantage for his employers! Mr. Fox put this in various strong points of view, and having here impressed the several facts he had stated very forcibly on the minds of the committee, proceeded to mention Mr. Hastings's determination to levy a fine of forty or fifty lacks of rupees upon Cheit Sing for the imputed contumacy, and his journey to Benares for that purpose. He spoke of his conduct on his arrival in terms of severe reprobation, declaring, that his language and conduct to the rajah was rude and insolent in the extreme. Soon after his arrival he caused Cheit Sing to be put under an arrest in his own palace, an instance of unparalleled indignity; for what would be thought of any tributary prince in Europe being arrested in his palace by the order of the sovereign paramount? Would not his authority be lost for ever? This whole proceeding provoked Mr. Fox's execration: he condemned and denied the right of Mr. Hastings to levy and fine; and contended that there was no ground for such an unwarrantable stretch of power, since the conditions of the stipulation had been all complied with, the rajah having continued faithful in his engagements and punctual in his payments, and having paid due obedience to the authority of the British government. He ridiculed the three rights to fine the subordinate princes that Mr. Hastings had, in his defence, laid claim to. The first of these was, he said, the right derived from Sujah al Dowlah of fining in case the mint was abused; the second was that of imposing a fine for investing, upon every new possession of the zemindary. This, Mr. Fox observed, was a miserable cavil, and a gross perversion of the word fine, since nothing was more distinct and different than the meaning of it in the two senses here mentioned; and the third right was, he declared, still more extraordinary. In 1764, Bulwant Sing, father of Cheit Sing, departed from his loyalty and joined Meer Jaffier and the English, against Sujah al Dowlah, when the latter, as Mr. Hastings stated in his

defence, "would probably have fined him" had not the English protected him and prevented it.

Mr. Fox diverted himself for some time with the idea of what Sujah al Dowlah "would probably" have done, had not the English prevented him. He pressed also upon the committee the declaration of Mr. Hastings, that according to the institutes of Jengheez Khawn or Tamerlane, the rights of the subject are nothing, while the power of the sovereign is every thing, and urged the injustice of such a despotic maxim with great energy. He next took notice of the inordinate vanity and presumption of Mr. Hastings in saying, that if Cheit Sing was a great prince, he as his sovereign, was a great king. In order to shew the absurdity of this, he put the case thus: Suppose the Emperor of Germany were to send an ambassador to the Elector of Hanover or the Elector of Brandenburgh, and he were to tell either of them, "if you are a great elector, I am a great emperor." Having pushed the ridicule to some extent, he returned to his narrative of what had happened at Benares, and stated all the facts of the ill treatment of the rajah, subsequent to his having been put under an arrest, to the massacre of the British, and the escape of Cheit Sing.

Mr. Fox after having gone through the whole of the facts, proceeded to take notice of the fourth and fifth articles of the charge which he said he should speak to shortly, considering them rather as matters of aggravation, superadded to the treatment of Cheit Sing, than as charges of much importance themselves. He then stated all the circumstances that took place at the castle of Bidgigur, and of the inducements to plunder, held out by Mr. Hastings to the soldiery, descanting on the mischievous consequences of such a practice, a doctrine for which he declared he had the authority of Mr. Hastings himself, who some years before had written a declaration that "the very idea of prize money suggested to his remembrance the former disorders which arose in their army from that source, and had almost proved fatal to it. Of this circumstance you must be sufficiently apprized, and of the necessity for discouraging every expectation of this kind amongst the troops; it is to be avoided like poison, &c." Having thus proved how very contradictorily Mr. Hastings had behaved in that respect, he mentioned the strange sort of affidavits and depositions that were made for the purpose of imputing suspicions of disloyalty and designs to rebel to Cheit Sing. One of these from a person deeply interested in the ruin of the rajah he read, to shew the House that almost all the allegations it contained, were on hearsay evidence. only.

Mr. Fox came at last to the fourth and fifth articles, and

stated the appointment of Derbege Sing to act as representative of the abdicated rajah, and his being soon afterwards deprived of his office, and thrown into prison, and the administration of affairs given to Jagher Deo Seo, who levied and collected the revenue with extraordinary severity to the great oppression of the natives. He also read the celebrated letter to the council at Calcutta, from Mr. Hastings at Lucknow, which was deemed so disgraceful to the British government; and he appealed to the common sense of the committee, if it was to be wondered at that Jagher Deo Seo should be rigorous in his collection of the revenue, when it was considered what an example Mr. Hastings had held out to him?

After having circumstantially gone through the whole, and applied a great deal of reasoning as he proceeded, in order to elucidate and enforce the criminality of the facts, he at length appealed to the honour and justice of the House, to decide by their vote of that evening, whether they chose to be considered as the avengers of those oppressed by Mr. Hastings, or his accomplices? There was, he declared, no alternative, They must either appear as the one or as the other. He recollected the language that had been held in 1782, when that code of laws, the resolutions were voted, and when it had been well said by an honourable and learned gentleman opposite,- (Mr. Dundas) that Mr. Hastings scarcely ever left the walls of Calcutta, that his steps were not followed with the deposition of some prince, the desertion of some ally, or the depopulation of some country. How oddly, then, must have sounded in his ears, the arguments in justification of the Rohilla war, that had lately come from the bench on which the learned gentleman sat-arguments that appeared to him to be the voice of the directors and proprietors of old defending those servants who had disobeyed their orders, and disgraced the British character by their rapine and injustice, but had taken care to make the company sharers in the spoil, by remitting home the produce of their plunder in investments, so as to ensure a good dividend to the proprietors!

There had been, he acknowledged, something like a colour for the vote the committee had come to respecting the Rohilla war; the extreme distance of the time at which it happened, the little information the House had of it till of late, the alleged important services of Mr. Hastings since, (though he maintained that they were neither meritorious nor services), and other causes and justifications; but there were none such to be urged against voting on the present occasion. The facts were all of them undeniable, and they were atrocious, and they were important; so much so, that upon the vote of that night, would, in his mind, the fate of Bengal depend.