hended that all parties were agreed as to the fubftance of the motion, and the only difference of opinion appeared to be with refpect to the form of it-he fhould therefore propole, with the confent of the right honourable gentleman, to . amend it in fuch a manner as would remove all objections. He accordingly moved that, inftead of the particular defcription of the papers in Mr. Burke's motion, it should run generally for the whole of the official correfpondence between Mr. Haftings and Mr. Middleton, which had not been already laid before the Houfe, and that the order fhould be directed to the Court of Directors inflead of Mr. Middle

ton.

Mr. R. Burton reprobated the fort of evidence which had Mr. R. been received in the course of the profecution, and which Burton. the loweft courts of law would not have fuffered to have been entertained a moment; and, cenfurable, in his opinion, was the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Burke) for the intemperate manner in which, throughout the proiecution, he had talked of Mr. Haftings; a ftyle of defcription which could only be juftifiably applied to convicts. He declared, he recollected to have inet with nothing like it, excepting only in reading of tranfactions which happened in the wort of times recorded in our hiftory. In the State Trials he had read of a perfon's having been put to the bar, and accufed as a criminal, when one of his judges had addreffed him by the title of Spider of hell.

- Mr. Brke defired the honourable and learned gentleman Mr. Burke. to recollect that the perfon who called a prifoner, when at the bar, and upon trial, Spider of heil was one of his own profeffion. He denied having, from the cominencement of the profecution to that moment, ufed one arfh or fevere epithet, applying it to Mr. Haftings. He had put criminatory epithets into his charges it was true, but how could he do otherwife in charges avowedly criminal?

The Attorney General acquainted the Houfe, that a duces te- The Atcum fubpoena could only be enforced where the document to torney Gebe produced was matter of official record.

neral.

Mr. Burke obferved,, that the honourable and learned gen- Mr. Burke. tleman poffeffed two forts of law wine,-he had fupernaculum for the other Houfe whenever he went there; and he had his inferior fort, which he thought would do for fuch uninformed men as himself. He reminded him of that bishop who fent to his wine merchant to order a pipe of indifferent port; as it was for the ufe of his inferior clergy; whereupon the wine-merchant fent him a pipe adapted to his order, accompanied with a note, declaring, that if the bishop could find a more indifferent pipe, he would give it his Loidship for nothing.

Mr.

Mr. R. Burton faid, that the House could not legally oblige Mr. Haftings to give up the letters.

Mr. Fox contended, that though he was no lawyer, he was fo warm a friend to the law of England, that he would not believe it fanctioned a propofition fo irrational, as that the Houfe had not a right to demand from a perfon accufed criminally, papers which afforded proofs of his criminality, when thofe papers were not the criminal's private property. The papers which they wanted were not the private papers of Mr. Haftings, but their papers, and the papers of the Court of Directors of the East India Company. Mr. Fox put the cafe of himself, when Secretary of State-and afked, had his Majefty demanded all his papers, whether he must not have delivered them?

Mr. R. Burton ftated, that neither the House nor a court of law could compel a criminal to deliver private letters criminating himself, though they might punish him for refufing to deliver them.

Major Scott declared his wifh to imprefs this truth upon the House, that if the right honourable gentleman was ferious, he might have brought forward the motion for corref pondence months ago; that the attempt at delay now would be pitiful and contemptible; and that the letters withholden by Mr. Haftings, were not withholden on account of their importance, but becaufe he thought it was an affront to him as a gentleman to perfift in demanding them, and that he fent them to his Majefty's Minifter, who three tines fince he received them, had propofed him to be Governor General of Bengal, to that Houfe, on account of his vigour and abilities, and they had unanimously approved the nomina

tion.

The queftions, as altered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, were put and agreed to, it having been first settled, that the charge of the Rohilla war fhould take place on the enfuing Thursday.

The Houfe adjourned.

Friday, 26th May.

The Speech of the Speaker.

"Moft Gracious Sovereign,

"Your faithful Commons have paffed a bill, intituled, "An act for vefting certain fums in Commiffioners, at the "end of every quarter of a year, to be by them applied to "the reduction of the national debt; by which they have "manifefted their attention to your Majefty's recommen

"dations

"dation, at the opening of this feffion, for establishing a "fixed plan for the reduction of the national debt.

"By the unanimity which attended the laft and most "important ftage of this bill, they have given the most de"cifive proof, that they have but one heart, and one voice, "in the maintenance of the public credit, and profperity of "their country.

"The public credit of the nation, which is the result of "just and honourable dealing, is now guarded by an addi❝tional fecurity. And the future profperity of this country will effectually be provided for, when it is confidered "that, for the purpose of pleading the cause of the conti"nuance of this measure moft powerfully with pofterity,

your faithful Commons have, to the juftice and good "policy of it, added the authority of their own example:

Qui facit, ille jubet.

"They have not been difcouraged by the burdens im"pofed during the last ten years from fubmitting in the pre"fent time, and in the hour of peace, to new, and the poffi

bility of other burdens; their object being to attain a "fituation for their country more favourable to her defence and glory in the event of future emergencies.

"A plan fo honourable in its principle, and fo conducive "to the future happiness and fafety of the kingdom, must "be in the highest degree acceptable to the Father of his "people.

"Under that confidence, in the name of all the Com"mons of Great Britain, I tender this bill to Your Majefty; to which, with all humility, your faithful Com"mons defire Your Majefty's royal affent."

It then received the royal affent.

Tuefday, 30th May.

When the order of the day for going into a Committee upon the question of the breach of privilege in the matter of complaint of General Adeane (member for Cambridge) was read, it was propofed on the part of the Treafury Bench to adjourn that order, as the Committee on the wine excife bill ftood as the next order of the day, and as that Committee would probably take up a good deal of time.

Mr. Sheridan remonftrated on the impropriety of adjourn- Mr. Sheriing a matter of fo perfonal a nature from time to time, and dan. letting it hang over the head of one of their own members, who must neceffarily be kept in a fituation extremely irkfome to his feelings. He contended, that the complaint of the breach of privilege flood as the first order of the day;

and

and as he prefumed it would be foon concluded, the difcuffion ought, in his opinion, to take place first.

Vifcount Beauchamp declared that he had ever underflood Beachamp that a question of breach of privilege took place of every other order of the day, and must be first difcuffed. He likewife reminded the Houfe, that it had been ufual whenever a member objected to any farther proceeding on a question of that nature, upon any ground of not being perfectly fatiffed with the proof before the Houfe, for the Houfe to ftay their proceeding. That right he had foreborne to exercile when the fubject was laft under confideration, out of delicacy to the honourable gentleman immediately concerned, and because he faw it was the wifh of the Houfe to take a little more'time before they decided. That time had now paffed, and he much wanted to know for what they waited any longer? Had they gotten better evidence than before, or was there any likelihood of their obtaining evidence more fatisfactory? The Houfe, he was perfuaded, were aware that they could not a fecond time examine the fame witneffes to the fame facts in a criminal proceeding; or, if the Houfe had any fuch power, he was fatisfied that they had too much liberality to attempt to adduce freth evidence from clerks of the Houfe, while thofe witneffes were under the impreffion (in confequence of what had paffed on the fubject in the Houfe) that their former evidence did not amount to full and legal proof of any perfonal charge against Mr. Mortlock, or any other member. The recommitment upon thefe grounds could not answer any end conducive to the fupport either of the dignity, or of the privileges of the Houfe, and therefore he earnestly hoped that the Houfe would not any longer adjourn the confideration of the bufinefs, but come to fome determination refpecting it.

Mr. Steele.

Mr. Steele temarked, that the noble Vifcount, inftead of attending to the motion actually depending, for the Speaker to leave the chair in order to go into a Committee on the wine bill, had entered into a full investigation of the merits of another fubject, which, though one of the orders for the day, was not,, for the prefent, before the Houfe. The noble Vifcount, and the honourable gentleman oppofite, feemed to entertain very different fentiments on the fubject, which they both wifhed to bring forward. The honourable gentleman appeared to think it a matter of too trifling importance to require the fmallest attention, and totally unworthy the confideration of the Houfe; while, on the contrary, the noble Vifcount was defirous of reprefenting it as of the greatest magnitude and importance. For his part, he fhould not take upon him to decide the difference; he was fatisfied to know, that whether it was trifling or important, there could be no

reafon

reafon drawn from either in favour of the argument of bringing it forward previous to the Committee on the wine bill. The only part of the noble Viscount's argument which applied to the real object in debate, the priority of the two questions was, that the one being a queftion of privilege, was of courfe from the established forms of parliamentary proceedings, entitled to a prior difcuffion. But to this he would anfwer, that the Houfe had not thought proper in any stage of the business to treat it as a matter of privilege, nor was there any reafon now for them to depart from that principle by which they had originally thought proper to confider it by.

He could not but admire the ingenuity of the gentlemen oppofite, in being able at all times to accommodate the circumftances of the cafe to their arguments. Thus when it had formerly been propofed to poftpone the confideration of the report from the Committee on the alteration of the lift, it happened then to be convenient and agreeable to thofe gentlemen that it should be delayed, and they were of courte fatisfied to put it off; but when it appeared likely to favour their with for deferring other bufinefs of a most important public nature, they then immediately changed their opinions, and confidered it as a queftion of privilege, which it would be a violation of the conftant rulés of parliamentary proceeding to paufe upon. For his own part he fhould certainly oppofe the poftponing a bufinefs of fo very confiderable and important a nature as that of the wine bill, in order to bring on one with which the other would not admit of a comparison.

cellor Pitt,

Mr. Chancellor Pitt remarked, that it was not poffible for Mr. Chenhim to agree to poftpone the Committee on the wine bill to that on privilege, as there was not a prospect of judging to what length the debate on the latter might go; and, by putting off the wine bill for the prefent, it might be kept out of. the Committee till after the Whitfuntide holidays. If he thought the difcuffion of the queftion of privilege would not take up any confiderable time, he fhould have no objection to giving it the preference, but not otherwife.

Lord George Cavendish expreffed his difapprobation of the Lord Fro. manner in which the time of the Houfe had been spent on a Cavendish. former day on fo frivolous a fubject. After what he underflood had been faid by the honourable member immediately concerned, he was furprised that the Houfe could pause a moment. Nothing had in the report of the Committee appeared to have been brought home to Mr. Mortlock; and furely that House, when its own Committee could not upon inquiry find any proof of a breach of privilege by one of its VOL. XX. N n

own