would be right and decent to go on in that manner, with not a third part of the House prefent? Would it not expose them to the advantage taken already more than once by an honourable gentleman oppofite to him (Major Scott) in respect to the admirable code of principles for the government of India, laid down in the refolutions moved by the right honourable and learned gentleman fo greatly to his own honour in 1782 What had been the honourable gentleman's (Major Scott's) argument in respect to thofe refolutions, but a repeated declaration that they had been moved and voted in a thin Houfe? If they proceeded therefore with the reft of the charges and more of them fhould be voted, they would next feffion, in all probability, hear that they had been voted. in a thin House. The honourabla gentleman on Friday laft, had taken a new ground of argument to urge the House to proceed with the remainder of the charges. He had pofitively declared his belief, that the fate of India depended on finishing them this year, and that declaration he had refted. entirely on dark hints and fuggeftions, as if recent advices had been reeeived from India, which juftified fuch an opinion. Perhaps, as that honourable gentlemen was more in the way of knowing the fecrets of India than he was, he knew of fome news that had arrived which juftified him in his affertion. If fo, it would be well for him to flate it to the Houfe; but, till he made out a cafe, and it behoved him to make out a strong one, to prove the fact, that the fate of India did depend on finifhing the charges that feffion, all infinuation of that kind muft go for nothing. For his part, Mr. Sheridan faid, he had made every poffible inquiry in order to learn whether any extraordinary news had recently arrived from India, and he could hear of nothing extraor dinary, but of the receipt of an extraordinary large diamond, faid to have been fent to Mr. Haftings, and prefented to his Majefty at an extraordinary and critical period of time. It was alfo a little extraordinary, that Mr. Haftings. fhould be chofen as the perfon to prefent this diamond, after the refolutions of 1782 had reached India; efpecially if, as had been predicted, they had been tranflated into Perfic and all the languages of the Eaft.-With regard to any expectation on the part of Mr. Hafting, or any claim that he could be fuppofed to have upon the Houfe, he could have none but that the Houfe would continue, as they had begun, folemnly and feriously to investigate his conduct, and after having in due time gone through the charges, come to fome ultimate decifion upon the whole. Early in the commencement of the feffion, the right honourable Mr. Chancellor Pitt had himfelf declared, and he doubted not he would recollect it,

"that

"that it would be exceedingly mifbecoming in the House "either to continue hearing the charges when a full atten"dance could not be obtained, or to leave off without first

moving a bill to hang up the inquiry, as it were, till the "next feffion, then to be refumed and purfued to its con"clufion." At the time of the right honourable gentleman's ftating that idea, the honourable gentleman oppofite to him (Major Scott) had not offered a word of objection; much lefs had he faid that the fate of India depended on their being gone through this feffion, or that it would be injustice if they were not. In point of character, Mr. Haftings, he must contend, had no fort of right to complain that he had been injured by the proceedings hitherto, because no perfon could affert that they were the firft arraignments of the character of Mr. Haftings in the Houfe of Commons. That gentleman's character and conduct as Governor General of India had been before arraigned in that House. It ftood arraigned upon the journals in the refolutions moved by the right honourable and learned gentleman in 1782, wherein every mifdemeanor contained in the charges was generally imputed to that gentleman in the most strong and pointed terms. With regard to the character and dignity of that Houfe, the best way to fupport both, was to act evenly and confiftently. They had hitherto proceeded deliberately, and in full Houfes, to difcufs and decide upon the charges, and had made a much farther progrefs than many gentlemen had, at the beginning, imagined it poffible for them to do. No delay but what was unavoidable could be imputed to the Houfe, nor could any be imputed to his right honourable friend near him (Mr. Burke) fince the Houfe could not but have obferved, that when the witneffes were under examination, his right honourable friend curtailed it as much as poffible, and omitted many questions that he intended to have afked, merely to avoid every appearance of a wifh to procraftinate. Every poffible difpatch had been ufed; they had proceeded a confiderable way, and it had been originally understood, that when they found it difficult to procure full attendances, the bufinefs was to be hung up till the next feffion. In the courfe of his fpeech, he put it to Major Scott, whether if all the rest of his charges were voted and Mr. Haftings impeached, he was not of opinion that India would be loft (The Major fhook his head.) If he did not think fo, he hoped he fhould hear no more of the bad confequences which would follow in India, if in the difcuffion of any other of the charges the Houfe was urged to vote

them.

Major

Major Scott fald he was fo convinced of the grofs injuftice Major Scott and oppreffion which Mr. Haftings would fuftain by a delay of fix or feven months, and ftill more of the extreme danger to whith our poffeffions in India would be expofed by a delay, that he could not avoid entering his folemn protest against every attempt to poftpone the decifion of the prefent inquiry, and he fhould moft heartily fupport the motion of the honourable gentleman for a call of the House, unless some other mode could be adopted for procuring a tolerable attendance till the business was brought to a conclufion. The honourable gentleman had obferved, that a fhort delay could not be of very material confequence to Mr. Haftings, fince he had long been arraigned, attacked, and cenfured by that House in refolutions or Reports. The fact was undoubtedly true he had been attacked and defended by all parties in turn, just as parties had changed in that Houfe; but all parties had occasionally held him out to the Public as one of their firft and most valuable fervants. He held a book in his hand, published by an honourable and learned gentleman, Mr. Hardinge, being in fact his fpeech on the 16th of December 1783, two days prior to the removal of the laft Adminiftration, in which juftice was done to the character of Mr. Haftings, in language fo fuperior to any he could use, that he would beg leave to read it to the Houfe: "What shall be "faid of Mr. Haftings, the delinquent? or what prepared "him for his prefent character? Long the fervant of the "Company, he has lived but for them, and for the Public, "united with them, fuftaining the most arduous conflict "with enemies on every fide, and factions at his own Board. "What is the real character of this wonderful man? He is "the Chatham of the Eaft; the fame enterprife, refource, "commanding genius, enlarged conceptions, and purity of "character, will make both of them the idols of pofterity, "when their little adverfaries will be too obfcure for infamy to record them." The Houfe might perhaps recollect what the honourable and learned gentleman had faid of the fame Mr. Haftings a fortnight ago. Surely then it was of fome importance to the caufe of public juftice, and to the honour of the Houfe and the country, that if Mr. Haftings was that great and refpectable character which the honourable and learned gentleman had formerly defcribed him, and which he believed to be his true character; if he was the Chatham of the Eaft, and had performed fuch essential fervices to his country, he ought not to be treated in the manner it was propofed to treat him by poftponing the inquiry to another feffion. Upon this part of the fubject he fhould fay no more, but content himself with folemnly protefting against any delay, as highly unjuft towards Mr. Haftings, VOL. XX.

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and

and derogatory to the honour of the Houfe, with refpect to the dangerous effect which delay might have upon the public interefts. The more he thought upon that fubject, the ftronger his conviction was, that we rifked an empire in India if we dropped the inquiring in the prefent moment after the decifion of Tuefday fe'ennight. The honourable gentleman had called upon him to itate the grounds of is epinion. He fhould be very forry to fay any thing in that House which should be prejudicial to his country or the EaftIndia Company; but the confequences appeared fo palpable, that he was aftonifhed they did not strike every member in the Houfe. He could folemnly declare, that all gentlemen with whom he had converfed, men of long experience in India, and free from every party bias, thought precifely as he did upon the fubject. The honourable gentleman feemed to conceive that he argued thus: that if Mr. Haftings were deemed in any degree culpable, India would be loft. But was that his argument? Suppofe the vote had been upon contracts, or allowances, or any charges of that kind, he fhould have thought it a very great hardihip upon Mr. Haftings, had the Houfe been prorogued, before he had had a full opportunity of being cleared; but there the mifchief would have ended. On the contrary, the decifion on the Benares bufinefs, or rather the half decifion, tended to deftroy all confidence in India, and to throw every thing into confufion. l'or how did it ftand? A right honourable gentleman, Mr. Burke, brought in a charge, on which he reprobated every ftep Mr. Haflings took relative to Cheit Sing. This charge was fupported by an honourable gentleman, Mr. Fox, who particularly laboured to prove this part, that under no circumftances could we exact military affiftance from Cheit Sing. It was very true that the right honourable gentleman below him, Mr. Pitt, had overturned all the arguments of the right honourable gentleman Mr. Eox, and had taken the charges completely to pieces. But what was the vote? That in the Benares charge there was matter of an impeachable nature; and he would hot fuppofe for a minute that the honourable gentleman was fo poor a politician as not to know that that charge, with the vote of the Houfe of Commons. upon it, was at this moment in its way to India, not from this country, but from another, which never for a moment loft fight of her intereft. And was there a man who could doubt the ufes to which it was poffible fuch a charge and fuck a vote could be turned? He could wifh a map of India were always upon the table of that Houfe, that gentlemen might fee to what dangers our poffeffions might be expofed. The honourable gentleman had called upon him to know what particular news had lately arrived from India that fhould

alarm

alarm us? He was not alarmed by the news from India, but from the measures pursued here, which tended to deftroy all government there, and to eftablifh principles which muft undo us. Could there be a fecond opinion amongst men who read the charge, and the vote upon that charge? And did it no tend to make every Zemindar in India independent? He meant as the charge was drawn out, and as the right honourable gentleman, Mr. Fox, had fupported it, and as it would appear from the vote. The explanation of the right honourable gentleman Mr. Pitt would never travel to India by the channel that would carry out the charge and the vote; and if it did, what would become of the energy and vigour of our Government? Feeling as he did upon this fubject, and finding thofe with whom he had converfed, men of much more experience and knowledge than himfelf, (he did not mean Mr. Haftings) faw the tendency of the vote in the fame manner that he did, he could not help resisting and deprecating any delay.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt did not look upon the object of thofe Mr. Changentlemen who oppofed the motion as any thing elfe than the cellor Pitt poftponement of the proceedings till next feffion, for no gentleman could object to any mode of procuring a full Houfe that could poffibly be adopted for the confideration of a fubject fo important. He fhould therefore argue the question as if it were for the poftponement. As to the idea of his honourable friend who had made the motion, that Mr. Haftings had a right to demand a speedy determination of the bufinefs, he admitted that he was certainly entitled to as fpeedy a determination as the circumftances of the cafe would admit of; but he could have no right, nor if he could, would it prove a beneficial right, to a determination, under circumftances which rendered it impoffible for the real fenfe of the House to be understood; which must be the consequence of proceeding at fo late a period of the feffion; when it was notorious that no precautions would be able to enforce a full and complete attendance. As to the confequences in idea, as reprefented by the honourable gentleman behind him, (Major Scott) who, on this occafion, feemed more tinctured with defpondency on the fubject of Indian affairs than was ufual with him, he confeffed he could not join with him in his apprehenfions of any fuch confequences. For his own part, he felt, from his own opinion of the question on the fubject of Benares, that there might be, and were, grounds on which that queftion could have been decided, which would not by any means warrant the interference which the honourable gentleman feemed to fear would follow from it. He had voted for the charge; but, notwithstanding his ha ving fo voted, he protefted against any inference that the

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executive