If (faid this eloquent fpeaker) the mind of Mr. Haftings were fufceptible of fuperftition, he might image the proud fpirit of Sujah ul Dowla looking down upon the ruin and devastation of his family; beholding the palace which he had adorned with the spoils of the devoted Rohillas, plundered by his bafe and perfidious ally; and viewing the man whom on his death-bed he had conftituted the guardian of his wife, his mother, and his family, forcibly expofing those dear relations, the objects of his folemn truft, to the rigor of the merciless feafons, or the violence of the more mercilefs foldiery.-Such were the awful difpenfations of retributive juftice!-It was not given to that houfe to witness the tremulous joys of the millions whom the vote of that night would fave from the cruelty of corrupted power. But the bleffings of the people thus delivered, would not be diffipated in empty air. No; they would lift up their prayers to heaven in gratitude to the power, which, by ftretching its mighty arm across the deep, had faved them from ruin and deftruction."

On this occafion Mr. Pitt acted a part which did him great honor. Though the eloquence of Mr. Sheridan had excited a spirit of enthufiafm in the houfe, which perhaps no degree of minifterial influence could have counteracted, it would be highly invidious and unjust to attribute the decided conduct of Mr. Pitt on this memorable night to the apprehenfion of being left in a minority by an attempt to negative the motion. On the contrary, he appeared penetrated with a perfect conviction of the atrocity of the facts, and of the strength of the evidence by which they were fupported, And the minifter, who in the comparatively infignificant bufinefs of an election. return could fo far degrade himself as to countenance, and even publicly to vindicate, an act of deliberate injuftice, now felt all the fympathies of humanity, all the energies of virtue, awakened in his breast, and impelling

him

him to teftify, in terms the most explicit and expreffive, his deteftation of perfidy fo vile, of cruelty fo remorseless. On a divifion the numbers were, in favor of the motion 175, against it 68.

On the 2d of March Mr. Pelham opened the charge relative to the Nabob of Ferruckabad, which was affirmed by 112 against 50 voices.

On the 15th of March the charge upon the fubject of contracts was brought forward by fir James Erskine. "All of them," fir James Erfkine obferved, "were made in direct violation of the regulations of the court of directors, that the contracts fhould be given from year to year, that they fhould be publicly advertifed, and be difpofed of to the beft bidder.' The contract for rice was avowedly given to Mr. Auriol, as a reward for his long and faithful fervices.' Of his expenditure no vouchers were required, but the accounts were to be given in upon honor. This mode of paffing accounts was (the honorrable mover observed) peculiar to India, as indeed honor there was of a peculiar nature. It dreaded the production of proofs, had an intuitive abhorrence of being con-fronted with truth, and fhrunk like the fenfitive plant from the touch of enquiry. The opium contract, Mr. Sullivan fon to the chairman of the India company, had immediately SOLD for a clear profit of fifty-two thoufand pounds. Another contract had been given to Mr. Archibald Frafer, the near relation of fir Elijah Impey, who had thought it neceffary to dispatch affidavits to England for the purpofe of clearing himself from the suspicion of participating in the profits accruing from it. These affidavits (fir James faid) were the paftoral effays of the learned judge, his fongs in ripas et flumina, the forerunners only of thofe epic atteftations, the pralia et reges, by which he had commemorated the wars of Benares and the rebellion of Oude." On this article the divifion was, ayes 60, noes 26.

Upon

Upon the 23d of March the charge relative to Fyzoola Khan was brought forward by Mr. Windham. This was carried on a division of 96 against 37 voices.

On the 2d of April Mr. Sheridan opened to the house the charge upon the fubject of prefents: upon which occafion he obferved, " that the late governor general had, in every part of his conduct, exhibited proofs of a wild, eccentric, and irregular mind. He had been every thing by starts, and nothing long-now high and lofty, now mean and infidious-now artful and temporifing, now rigid and inflexible-in pride, in paffion, in all things changeable except in corruption. His revenge was a tempest, a tornado blackening the horizon, and involving all within the fphere of its influence in one common destruction. But his corruption was regular and fyftematic, a monfoon blowing uniformly from one point of the compafs, and wafting the wealth of India to the fame port in one certain direction." Upon a divifion, the numbers appeared, ayes 165, noes 54.

On the 19th of April the charge refpecting the revenues was opened by Mr. Francis, who had formerly occupied with fo much honor to himself, but fo unavailingly as to the public, the office of member of the fupreme council in India, and who had recently taken his feat as a member of the house of commons. This charge was of a very important and interefting nature; and Mr. Francis entered into a moft able and elaborate difcuffion of it. He fhewed, from the very nature of their tenure," that the Zemindars were not mere collectors of the revenue, as they had been artfully reprefented by Mr. Haftings, but real land-holders poffeffing a permanent, divifible, and hereditary property, defcending even to women. He enumerated the different modes of managing the revenues of Bengal, adopted by Mr. Haftings in the course of thirteen years."The object of Mr. Haftings, he said, was to avoid coming to a fixed fettlement, for then there must

be

be an end of peculation. At the time of his acceffion to the government the provinces had not perfectly recovered the effects of the dreadful famine which had taken place in Bengal at a very recent period; yet then did the committee of circuit, under the fanction of Mr. Hastings, raise the rents of the zemindaries to an unheard-of standard; and by the ensuing project of 1781, the whole landed property of the country was put up to a pretended auction; the proprietors were univerfally deprived of their estates, and banyans, cheats, and adventurers of all forts, put into poffeffion of their lands. Under this fettlement Cantoo Baboo, Mr. Haftings's banyan, held farms to the amount of 135,000l. per annum. The directors had ordered the perfons compofing the committee of circuit to be prosecuted, but Mr. Hastings had ordered the prosecution to be withdrawn. A committee of revenue was fubfequently introduced under the influence of Gunga Govind Sing, a notorious and adroit villain, which completed the ruin of the country. When Mr. Haftings came into poffeffion of the Bengal government, he found it a fertile, populous, and profperous country; it contained a regular gradation of ranks like a pyramid, from a well-ordered yeomanry to fovereign princes: but thefe diftinctions have been broken down-the whole nation has been pounded as it were by the oppreffion of the government into one mafs-and the prince was no otherwise discoverable from the peasant than by the fuperiority of his fufferings, and the more pungent bitterness of his humiliations, Mr. Francis concluded in these remarkable words :-" my particular labor is now at an end. An unremitting perseverance of thirteen years has at last conducted me to that iffue which has been the object of all my efforts. Mr. Haftings must now be impeached-let him have a fair trial-I defire no more. In arriving at that object I have fecured every personal purpose that I ever had in view; the reputation of fir John Clavering, colonel Monfon, and

myfelf,

myself, is fecure; your votes are my authority; the house of commons are my compurgators. The only victory I ever aimed at was to clear my character from foul asperfion, and to establish, as I truft I have done, the integrity of my conduct in the estimation of my country," This charge was confirmed, notwithstanding the unexpected diffent of the minifter, by 71 to 55 voices.

On the 9th of May the report made by Mr. Burke from the committee, to whom it had been referred to prepare the articles of impeachment, was confirmed by the house, ayes 175, noes 89. On the following day it was voted that Mr. Haftings be IMPEACHED: and Mr. Burke accordingly, in the name of the house of commons, and of all the commons of Great Britain, repaired to the bar of the house of lords, and impeached Mr. Haftings of high crimes and mifdemeanors-at the fame time acquainted their lordships, that the commons would with all convenient speed exhibit articles against him, and make good the fame.

On the 14th another charge refpecting mifdemeanors in Oude was added to the former by Mr. Burke, and voted without a divifion. On the fame day the articles actually prepared were fent to the lords; and on the 21ft Mr. Haftings, being conducted to the bar of that houfe by the ferjeant at arms, was taken into the cuftody of the black rod, but on the motion of the lord chancellor was admitted to bail-himself in 20,000l. and two fureties, Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Sumner, in 10,000l. each; and he was ordered to deliver in an anfwer to the articles of impeachment in one month from that time, or upon the second day of the next feffion of parliament.

On the 30th of May (1787) the king put an end to the prefent feffion by a fpeech, applauding "the measures taken by parliament refpecting the reduction of the national debt, and the treaty of navigation and commerce with the most chriftian king. He fpoke of the general tranquillity