priety or delicacy the appointment of a member as the reprefentative of the houfe in this bufinefs, who was diftinguifhed from all others by the perfonal conteft in which he had been engaged with the accufed." This drew down. the indignation of Mr. Burke. "Was it fit or becoming, he afked, for a legiflator, in a great and important question, to fay that his feelings compelled him to abandon his arguments?that his delicacy was offended by rational investigation? What was delicacy, but at beft a fuperadded flower to virtue-an ornament, the prefence or abfence of which was alike indifferent to the substance? Delicacy and feeling might be proper terms to express the fenfations excited by the exertions of an opera finger, but they were an infult to the folemnity and magnitude of parliamentary deliberation." At length the house divided on the motion of Mr. Fox, ayes 62, noes 122.

This decifion gave extreme offence to the committee of managers, who expreffed, in a letter to Mr. Francis, the high fenfe they entertained of his merits and fervices. "They had perufed," they faid, "with great attention, the records of the company, and they had found there, on the part of Mr. Francis, wife and steady principles of government, an exact obedience to the authority placed over him, an inflexible integrity in himself, and a firm refiftance to all corrupt practices in others; crowned by that uniform benevolent attention to the rights, properties, and welfare of the natives, which had been the leading object in his appointment. Such a conduct, fo tried, acknow. ledged, and recorded, demanded their fulleft confidence; and fuch were the qualities that had excited their wish for his affiftance." Thus nobly and unequivocally was the character of this diftinguifhed politician, patriot, and friend to mankind, vindicated in the view of prefent and of fu ture times.

Next in dignity, and next in the general eftimation in delinquency, to Mr. Haftings, was fir Elijah Impey, chief

juftice

juftice of the fupreme court eftablifhed by the regulating act of 1773; against whom it was now determined to inftitute a fimilar procefs. Six articles of impeachment were accordingly in the early part of the feffion exhibited to the house by fir Gilbert Elliot; of which the conduct of the chief justice in the memorable bufinefs of Nund-comar conftituted the first. His decifions in the Patna and Coffijura caufes, his acceptance of an employment, contrary to his CATH, in the native court ftyled the fudder dewannee adaulet, to be held during the pleasure of the governor and council, and his proceedings in concert with the governor refpecting the affairs of Benares and Oude, furnished ample materials for the remaining charges. On the 4th of February, 1788, fir Elijah was permitted to make his defence at the bar of the houfe; which he performed at great length, and with great ability-confining himself however entirely to the charge relating to Nund-comar. For he remarked, with the artfulness of practifed and technical fubtilty, "that his mind had been fo much deranged by the magnitude of that charge, that he found it impoffible to exert himself in reply to the other accufations till the queftion of Nund-comar was decided. He could not bear to live under the imputation of MURDER; but if he were acquitted of that, he fhould confider all the other charges as frivolous and unimportant." Being requested to leave the minutes of the defence, as Mr. Haftings had before done, upon the table, the chief justice declared it to be impoffible-having unfortunately spoken extempore.

On the 28th of April (1788), fir Gilbert Elliot entered upon his fummary of the charge. He enlarged upon the "abfurdity of enforcing a law founded upon the local customs of one country against the natives of another. To extend by a constructive interpretation the English law against forgery, unknown on the other fide the Tweed, to India, was no lefs prepofterous than to try the great mogul

mogul and the viziers of his court upon the English statute of bigamy. He ftated in the ftrongest terms the expedi ency and equity of at leaft granting a refpite of the fentence, fince conviction had been obtained by evidence the moft fufpicious, at a time when Nund-comar was in the act of bringing forward an accufation against the governor general, and when it was evident that the execution of the fentence could not take place without exciting horror and difmay throughout Hindoftan. He affirmed, that the blood of the MURDERED RAJAH was upon their heads, and ftill crying for vengeance on the man who had thus ftained and crimfoned the fpotlefs ermine of juftice." The defence of fir Elijah Impey had, however, engaged and pre-occupied the minds of the house. And it must be confeffed, that the chief justice had fo fkilfully entrenched himfelf behind the impregnable ramparts of the law-the letter of which, admitting the extenfion of the system of English jurifprudence to India, he in the whole of this tranfaction carefully avoided overftepping-that it was dif ficult to pronounce him in a legal fenfe guilty, however flagitious his conduct might appear when brought to the teft of free and rational investigation. The lawyers in the house feemed to confider it as a common caufe, and exerted themselves with peculiar ardor in his behalf; and Mr. Pitt declaring himfelf convinced of the innocence of the accufed, the motion of fir Gilbert Elliot was on the divifion negatived by a majority of 73 to 65 voices. Such was the effect of this difcouraging circumftance, that the farther confideration of the impeachment was adjourned over the feffion, and it has never yet been refumed. It seems extraordinary, that the acceptance of an appointment contrary to his oath of office, under the governor and council, by the chief juftice, which was the immediate ground of his recall, was not made the leading article of the impeachment, as upon this head, all the ingenuity of the profeffi

ong

on, excellent and admirable as it is, could have afforded no colorable defence.

The trial of Mr. Haftings commenced on the 15th of February (1788); Westminster-hall being fitted up for the purpofe with great magnificence. Mr. Burke was no lefs than four fucceffive days in making his preliminary fpeech, which was filled with vehement invective, with much rhetorical exaggeration, and with matter wholly extraneous to the subject of the impeachment. Men of plain fenfe, whose object was TRUTH, and who defired only a clear and fimple fummary of facts, fighed over thefe eccentricities and follies; and augured ill of the final fuccefs of the impeachment from fo injudicious an outfet. If approbation, however, was wanting, the place was amply fupplied by admiration; and the fpeech was extolled by the parafitical flatterers of Mr. Burk, as a more than Ciceronian effort of cloquence.

On the 22d of February, the Benares charge was opened by Mr. Fox; and it was concluded on the 25th by Mr. Grey, member for the county of Northumberland, whofe talents had attracted at a very early period of life, in an eminent degree, the attention of the house, of which he was foon perceived deftined to be one of the chief and most diftinguifhed ornaments.

On the 15th of April, the charge relative to the Begums of Oude was brought forward in a very able manner by Mr. Adam; and the evidence on this charge' was fummed up by Mr. Sheridan, in a speech which lasted five days, and of which the more vigorous compreffion only was wanting to the perfection of eloquence.

The last business of importance which engaged the attention of parliament, was a bill brought into the house by fir William Dolben, member for the university of Oxford, a man of the highest integrity and respectability, to regulate the tranfportation of flaves from the coaft of Africa to the Weft Indies. At the beginning of the year, a multitude

titude of petitions had been prefented from the different towns, cities, and counties of the kingdom, imploring in earnest and affecting terms the abolition of that fuperlatively nefarious and deteftable traffic. A motion on the fubject of thefe petitions was expected to be made by Mr. Wilberforce, member for Yorkshire; but in confequence of the long-protracted and unfortunate indifpofition of that gentleman, Mr. Pitt on the 9th of May moved a refolution, importing that the houfe would early in the next feffion proceed to take into confideration the state of the flave trade. The bill of fir William Dolben, which was intended merely to establish a certain reafonable proportion between the number of flaves and the tonnage of the fhips, was violently and obftinately oppofed by petitions from the merchants of London and Liverpool concerned in the African trade. Counfel being therefore engaged, and witneffes examined, it appeared in evidence at the bar of the house, that five feet fix inches in length, and fixteen inches in breadth, was the average fpace allotted to each flave. The lower deck of the veffel was entirely covered with bodies. The space between the floor of that deck and the roof above, in height about five feet eight inches, was divided by a platform, alfo covered with human bodies. The flaves were chained two and two by their hands and feet, and by means of ring-bolts faftened to the deck. In that fultry climate, their allowance was a pint of water each, per diem; and they were usually fed twice a day with yams and horfe-beans. After meals they were compelled by the whip to jump in their irons, which by the flave-dealers was called dancing. They had not, as was emphatically stated, when ftowed together, fo much room as a man in his coffin, either in length or breadth. They drew their breath with laborious and anxious efforts, and many died of mere fuffocation. The cuftomary mortality of the voyage exceeded feventeen times the ufual estimate of human life. A flave fhip, when full fraught with this. cargo