Mr. Demp

executive government of India were not at liberty to demand extraordinary aids from the Zemindars on extraordinary emergencies. He protefted against any inference, that if fuch aids were refufed, they had a right to punish the delinquency, and enforce obedience by an exorbitant and unreasonable fine. He protefted against the inference that Cheit Sing, under the circumftances of the cafe, had been unjustly or improperly difpoffcffed of his zemindary. He had voted the article on grounds widely different from any of those which he had stated, viz. merely on the exorbitancy of the fine propofed to be inflicted. Having done fo himself, he had fufficient reafon for fuppofing that other gentlemen might have felt in a fimilar manner on the subject, and. that of courfe no pofitive inference could be drawn of the intentions of gentlemen in the votes they gave on that question, of a nature fimilar to that made by the honourable gentleman. He could not but think that it was, for many reafons, improper to proceed in the bufinefs during the prefent feffion, and that the proceedings which had hitherto been had, might be prefented, and hung up by a bill for that purpose, that fo they might be refumed at the commencement of the next feffion.

Mr. Dempfter affigned, as his reafons for feconding the motion, that he confidered it as an act of merely common juftice to Mr. Haftings, that the charges fhould be all gone through this feffion, and he was convinced that they ought to be concluded with all poffible difpatch, after the fpeech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the preceding Tuesday fe'nnight, and more efpecially after the manner in which the right honourable gentleman had repeated his arguments in the speech which he had just made. Was it to be inferred that a Governor General was to be impeached, for having conceived that it was right to levy a fine on a contumacious Zemindar, and for going to obtain that fine in the mildeft way poffible, by putting the Zemindar under an ar reft, rather than reforting to the more violent means of procuring it, by making war upon him? What an effect must this doctrine have in India upon the other native Princes tributaries to the British government? What would the Rajah of Tanjore think of it, whofe capital had been facked, and was now filled with foldiery, and whole country had been taken from him, and a large tribute demanded and exacted to this day? Would not he talk of the wrongs which he had fuffered, and, being induced by the conduct of the Houfe of Commons in the inftance of Cheit Sing, claim and expect retribution? It was true, indeed, that Mr. Haftings in his conduct in India had not always paid the ftricteft attention to the natural rights of mankind, but he had never violated

them

them but where the intereft of the Company, his employers, actually required it, and therefore it was an ill return after all his zeal and all his fervices, to let him remain in fufpenfe liable to the injurious conftructions which would not fail to be put upon the vote of Tuefday fe'nnight, and the argument of the right honourable gentleman.

Mr. Dundas begged leave to remind gentlemen of the pro- Mr. Dunpriety of permitting the vote of last Tuesday to reit till the das. day of difcuffion came, free from any fpeculative construction upon it, and not by the aid of their own imaginations to give it a meaning which might not ultimately appear to have belonged to it. With regard to his right honourable friend's argument, he had clearly declared his opinion and his meaning when he had delivered it, and he believed the House would agree that he had re-ftated it very faithfully that day. As to the honourable gentleman's ideas of our holding India by dint of power, we certainly did fo; and by what other tenure did any fovereign ftate hold territories acquired by conqueft? As unfortunately the government of our Indian poffeffions was neceffarily defpotic, it furely the more behoved that House to take particular care that the government of India was conducted as well as poffible; and, for that reafon, it was right the inquiry fhould proceed in the manner, and at the time, moft likely to answer the ends of fubftantial justice, and to fatisfy the fair claims of the individual accufed. With regard to the honourable gentleman behind him, Major Scott, he certainly had that day delivered a language fomewhat more defpondent than he ufed to hold: but allowance ought to be made for man's zeal and warmth when they thought the intereft of their friends affected. He could affure the Houfe, however, that, fo far from the laft accounts from India, defcribing the ftate of our affairs there to be worse than they were a month ago, they stated them to be rather better.

Major Scott begged leave to affure thofe right honourable Major Scoft gentlemen, who had accufed him unjustly of defpondency, he was not of a defponding temper; and he was convinced, that force, and firmnefs, and vigour enough were in our countrymen abroad to resist and overcome all their enemies. He thought India might be holden for ever by this country, but then it must be by receiving fupport from home, and not by counteraction: and he was convinced from his foul, that the late vote, ftanding as it then did, and used as it would be by our national enemies, tended to deftroy the allegiance of all our subjects, to infpire them with ideas of independence, and to fet India in a flame. He would not fpeak out more plainly, than just to afk, if the right honourable gentleman did not know where Cheit Sing now

was,

Lord Geo.
Cavendish.

Mr. Hamilton.

Mr. Burke.

Mr. Young.

was, and what ufe might be made of him by thofe who were jealous of our power, if the late vote, and Benares charge fhould be circulated throughout Hindostan, as he was confident it would be, before the House met again to do away the poifon contained it?

Lord George Cavendish declared himfelf adverse to the call, which, he faid, would occafion fo many delinquents by difobedience, that the Houfe could not proceed to enforce its own order; it would therefore incur difgrace by an exhibition of imbecillity.

Mr. Hamilton rofe to anfwer Mr. Sheridan's remarks in his having deemed Mr. Haftings a perfecuted as well as an accufed man. He took notice, that the honourable gentleman had given him the alternative of declaring that he did not mean the expreffion in its ordinary fenfe, an alternative which, he faid, he would not accept, as he was not prone to fpeak lightly or without confideration, nor remarkable for retracting what he had once faid. When he ufed the word perfecuted, he did not mean that the House of Commons perfecuted Mr. Haftings. The Houfe, he well knew, perfecuted no perfon. What he alluded to was the acrimonious ftyle in which Mr. Haftings had been always mentioned both in fpeeches and in the charges. That he thought perfecution. He had little doubt but that as his right honourable friend had prophefied, he fhould be in a minority, a fituation it was not his right honourable friend's interest to wish him always to be in; he would, however, neverthelefs divide the Houfe on his motion.

On the divifion the numbers were Ayes (for the Call) 30. Noes 99.

Mr. Burke declared, that he had adhered to the rule which he had laid down of being in all refpects throughout the bufinefs relative to Mr. Haftings bound and governed by the opinion of the Houfe; and therefore he had neither debated nor voted on the queftion of the call. Having faid this, he moved to discharge the witnefes from their attendance, but, on the recommendation of Major Scott and Mr. Aldermen Le Mefurier, confented to crofs examine one of them, as he was prefent.

The examination continued till eight o'clock, when the Houfe adjourned.

Friday, 23d June.

Mr. Wilberforce having moved that the county election bill be read a third time,

Mr. Young declared, that he could not let the bill pass, without faying a word or two in fupport of his objections to

it

it. He then ftated a variety of general grounds of objection, the principal of which was, a conviction that the regifter would prove a fource of inconvenience and danger, rather than of fecurity to freeholders. He pronounced the profeffed object of the bill to be that which every man muit concur in withing to effect, but the provisions of it appeared to him more likely to embarrass than to fimplify, and as he could not think the means in any degree proportioned to the end, he fhould give the bill his negative.

The Honfe divided, Ayes 38-Noes 16.

Mr. Wilberforce moved, that it be an inftruction to the Mr. Wilgentlemen directed to prepare a bill for the difpofal of the berforce. bodies of convicts after execution, to prepare a claufe for changing the fentence of female convicts for petty treason from burning to hanging.

A word or two palled in recommendation by the Attorney General, that the words high and, fhould be prefixed to the words petty treason, and the motion was agreed to, and the bill immediately brought in, and read a firft time.

Upon the motion that the bill concerning the Commiffioners of Public Accounts be read a second time,

Mr. Huffey complained of not having heard any thing of Mr. Hufley. the money remaining in the hands of fub-accountants, having been paid in. He understood that they had public money in their hands to a confiderable amount. He wished, therefore, that the Commiffioners of Accounts were specially directed to turn their attention to that object, and to report accordingly. It was ufual with the Houfe to vote the fupplies every feffion, and the feffion enfuing they had upon their table what was called the Difpofition Paper, in which, however, there was never any mention made of the money remaining in the hands of the fub-accountants.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt ftated, that the Commiffioners of Mr. ChanAccounts had been of late employed on the head of the cellor Pitt. Cuftoms, and that they had made a confiderable progrefs in a Report upon that topic. He meant next feffion to revive a propofition, concerning the regulation of the Cuftomhoufe department; he had waited till the Commiffioners of Accounts had finifhed their inquiries upon that fubject, meaning to bring forward at the plan of confolidation of duties and of fimplifying them, and regulating and reforming the office arrangements. With regard to the other matter mentioned by the honourable gentleman, the defire to have the attention of the Commoners of Public Accounts directed to the balances in the hands of fub-accountants, perhaps that honourable gentleman, who was at all times fo laudably anxious for the due application of the public money, was not aware that by an act of the laft felon, the inycftigation of

that fubject was exprefsly referred to another fet of Commiffioners, especially appointed for that purpose. Thofe Commiffioners, he was happy to fay, had made a great, and, he flattered himself, to the honourable gentleman and to the House, a fatisfactory progress in the formation of a Report upon the subject. From the Report of the Commiffioners appointed laft feffion, gentlemen would be beft able to judge, whether any farther ftep fimilar to that recommended by the honourable gentleman was neceffary or not.

The order of the day for the commitment of the EaftIndia Company's relief bill, having been moved and read, the Speaker left the Chair, and Mr. Rofe took his feat at the Table.

Mr. Huffey Mr. Huffey expreffed his doubts with refpect to the queftion, whether the faith of Parliament was pledged as a fecu rity to the fubfcribers for the annuities granted by the EaftIndia Company, in virtue of an act of the 23d of the prefent King. He defired, that clause might be read, and faid, his doubts arofe altogether from his conftruction of the words of the claufe; and if there was ground for doubt, he thought it ought to be removed, and the matter put in a clear, and unambiguous point of view. If it was known, that the Public were not refponfible, the value of the annuity in queftion would fink in the market, and therefore in point of juftice and honour, the precife ftate of the fact ought to be ascertained.

Mr. Dun

das.

Mr. Dundas defcribed the bill as enabling the Eaft-India Company to fell the remainder of the annuity they received from the Public, on the fame terms that they had fold the former part of the annuity upon. As to the tranfaction, the Public had no other concern in it than this: the Public borrowed a fum of the Company as the price of the renewal of their charter, for which they paid a certain annuity to the Eaft-India Company, and at the fame time they authorized the Company to open a fubfcription for an equal fum, the intereft of which amounted to an equal annuity. But in the first part it was inerely a tranfaction between Government and the Company. The former having paid into the hands of the latter, the annuity which they had conditioned to pay, as the intereft of the money they borrowed of the Company, had fulfilled all they were bound to fulfil, and were anfwerable for nothing farther; but if they faw the money they had fo paid, about to be diverted by the Company to improper purposes, to the difcharge of their promifcuous expences, their fhipping, or any other fervice, than the payment of the annuities which the Company were engaged to pay to their fubfcribers, undoubtedly it would be the duty of Adminiftration to come to Parliament, and ak

for