theatre of that variety of crimes, with which avarice and ambition fo frequently infpiced the worthlefs part of mankind. Difgrace naturally followed upon the commiffion of thefe enormities; the honour of Englishmen loft its luftre; and, while the princes of the Eaft re garded with indignation the violent and lawless proceedings of the fubjects of Britain, the flates of Europe, with equal indications of abhorrence, adopted and difperfed their fentiments. The natural tendency of thefe circumftances was to excite the attention of parlia ment; and, among their proceedings upon the fubject, Mr. Burke particularly enumerated the ap. pointment of the two memorable committees of 1781, the fecret committee, in which Mr. Dundas had prefided, and the felect committee, the motion for which had been made by general Richard Smith, no longer a member of that houfe, and feconded by Mr. Roufe, now fecretary to the board of control. In the opinion of Mr. Burke it would have appeared more becoming, if the latt of thefe gentlemen had undertaken the butinefs, and had not left him to engage in a matter which was more peculi arly and immediately his own province. In addition to thefe obftacles, Mr. Burke alluded to the known fentiments of a nobleman in the full vigour of great infiuence, and extraordinary talents, who had treated the reports of thefe committees, the principles of which Mr. Burke was now to inforce, as of no greater value than the imaginary adventures of Robinfon Crufoe. ceeding againft ftate delinquents, which were on record. The first of thefe was a direction to the attorney general to profecute. From this meafure, Mr. Burke faid he mut acknowledge himself totally averfe, because he had reafon to believe, that Mt. Arden, who now poffeffed that office, did not feel any very zealous inclination to fupport the momentous charge that was to be made; and to bring it forward under the weight and fanction of his powers. Nor indeed did he conceive, that a trial by jury was of all others the most unexceptionable and beft devised for the purpofe of obtaining juftice againit fo elevated an offender, and for crimes of fo extreme magnitude. In the court of king's bench Mr. Burke imagined, that the dignity of the trial would ill affort with the varying multitude of lef fer caufes, of meum and tuum, asfault and battery, converfion and trover, trefpafs and burglary, together with an innumerable tribe of different mifdemeanours. fecond mode of profecution he would mention, was that of the introduction of a bill of pains and penalties. To this mode he had infuperable objections, as, in his opinion, the procedure must prefs with the feverity of injustice upon the accufed, in obliging him to a premature difclofure of the evidence upon which his defence was founded, and tarnish in no flight degree the character of that houfe, of which the members would thus prepofterously appear in the twofold capacity of accufers and judges. The only method, which remained to him, and which was at once ancient and confiitutional, was that of proceeding by the mode of impeachment. In the adoption of this measure however, he did not ap Mr. Burke proceeded to enumerate the various methods which might be adopted in this business; and the three different forts of pro K 3 The prove prove of the more ufual practice, of first moving a bill of impeachment, and then appointing a committee, for the purpofe of di covering and arranging articles, a practice, which appeared to carry in it an air of warmth and prejudice, exceedingly repugnant to the juftice, the dig nity and the honour of the house. He intended therefore, with their permition in the first place to move for the papers, the production of which, he conceived, would moft immediately conduce to the purpofes of fubftantial justice; and then out of thefe papers he would endeavour to collect the articles which it might be proper to carry up to the bar of the houfe of lords, and would fubmit them to the decifion of the house. It was fuperfluous to dwell upon the neceffity of acting with the moft guarded caution, and the coolest impartiality. In the very moment when an accufer was advancing his charges against another, he was himself placed, in a confiderable degree, under a ftate of accufation and trial. Mr. Burke concluded with moving for feveral of thofe papers which he conceived to be most immediately neceffary for the purpofes of the impeachment; and his motion was feconded by Mr. Windham. Mr. Dundas followed immediately after Mr. Burke, in order to defend himself from the infinuations, which he conceived to be Implied in the manner in which he had introduced his motion. He obferved, that he was utterly at a lofs to imagine what could have been the ground of thofe infinu ations; fince, at no period of his life, had he ever faid, or dropped the remotest hint, that he intended to become the accufer of Mr. Haftings. On the contrary, he had examined his conduct minute ly, and the refult had always been, that, where there was any improper conduct obfervable in the governor-general, there was always fome letter of the court of directors, or fome strong reafon to bear him out, and to elude the poffibility of annexing a criminal intention. To explain the cause of the expenfive eftablishments in India, Mr. Dundas read a letter, written by Mr. Haflings in 1782, complaining of his fituation, in coniequence of the number of writers that were fent out; and declaring, that he had about him at that time two hundred and fifty persons, the younger fons of the first families in Britain, all gaping for lacks, and ferambling for patronage. This remonttrance was fo far from producing its defired effect, that during the immaculate year 1783, and when fir Henry Fletcher fat at the head of the board of directors, thirty-lix new writers were actually equipped for India. Mr. Dundas could not immediately turn to the lift of thefe writers, but it was pretty obvious to him from what hop they had come, Nor was the hand of Mr. Burke lefs visible in fome of the dispatches of the court of directors of that period, from the ftyle in which they were written. Upon the whole, Mr. Dundas obferved that fince he had moved the refolutions of 1782, Mr. Haftings had done the most effential fervices to the company, and had received the thanks of the court of directors. Not that Mr. Dundas wifhed to fhelter himself under the authority of that vote : on the contrary, he was ready to avow, that, had he been a director, he fhould most undoubtedly have fupported the propofition, from a thorough conviction that the thanks were merited. Though he had thought thought it expedient to recall Mr. Haltings in 1782, on account of the breach of the treaty of Poor under, and of the expenfive eftablishments introduced by him in India; he however rejoiced that the refolution had not been carried into effect, becaufe, in that cale, he fhould have been the means of depriving the company of a mot valuable and ufeful fervant, and the public of a governor-general in India, diftinguished by the most uncommon ardour, abilities, and capacity. logue of crimes com mitted in India; to the infinite disturbance of the peace of the country; to the mifery, and even burchery of the natives; to the deftruction of all confidence in British faith; and to the everlasting difgrace of the Britifh name and character in Indoftan? Mr. Fox remarked upon Mr. Dundas's approbation of the thanks given to the governor-general by the court of directors, and obferved, that this was a declaration in other words, that the fame perfon, who had prevailed upon the houfe of commons to refolve, in a grave and phlegmatic form, but in ftrong and energetic phrafe, that governor Haftings deferved parliamentary cenfure, would have given that gentleman thanks for his long and meritorious fervices. What egregious inconfiftency? Did not the word "long" in the vote of thanks comprehend the whole of the fervices of Mr. Haftings, as well thofe before 1782, as thofe fubfequent to that period? Was there not in this conduct, a contradiction, infulting to that house, and inconfiftent to a fhameful degree ?> Mr. Fox role with his ufual promptitude, to repel the charge which Mr. Dundas had brought against the adminiftration of 1783; and both he and Mr. Burke joined to affure the house, that the former had never been the means of fend ing out more than one, and the latter, not of one writer to India. Mr. Burke added, that Mr. Dundas was certainly but an ill judge of ftyle, fince it fo happened, that he had never written a line in any one dispatch of the court of directors, in the whole courfe of his life. Before he fat down, Mr. Fox begged leave to fay one word to the fort of defence Mr. Dundas had made. He had been reduced to the neceifity of admitting, that he had once entertained an opinion, that Mr. Haftings had acted in a manner highly culpable; and had added that he was fill of the fame opinion. But he had endeavoured to confine his cenfure to two points, in the administration of India. Gracious heaven! did the whole idea, which Mr, Dundas had entertained of the culpability of Mr. Haftings, amount only to this? Had the house heard nothing of the Rohilla war? of Cora and Allahabad of Cheit Sing? of the Beguems? and of all the long cata Mr. Pitt fpoke in vindication of Mr. Dundas. He fhould have been afhamed of his own feelings, could he tamely have fuffered fuch infinuations to be made, and that_by a man circumstanced as Mr. Fox was, without expreffing fome part of the indignation, with which his breaft was filled, and in which, he trufted, no perfon of generous principles could avoid taking a fhare. By whom was this charge of inconfiflency advanced? Let the houfe compare the charge, and the party from whom it proceeded; and then judge whether he deferved cenfure, for fuffering his temper to be fomewhat ruffled by fo barefaced and thameless a con K 4 duct. duct. Mr. Fox however had not deviated from his ufual confiliency, when, having first taken it for granted, that Mr. Dundas had during a ferics of years continued to load with the groffelt and most extravagant reproaches a certain individual, and was now become the advocate of that individual; he had taken upon himfelf, from his own recent practice and experience, to dictate the form of words in which the recantation of Mr. Dundas ought to have been made. But his learned friend had no need of fuch a tutor; nor would the houfe be led to believe, as they might have done, had they not too well known the perfon by whom the charge was made, that his heart was in truth, capable of feeling and abhorring, the meannefs and degradation of conduct he had imputed to Mr. Dundas. Mr. Pitt undertook to prove, that the fame principles which had led Mr. Dundas to condemn Mr. Haftings in one inftance, irrefiftibly obliged him to applaud him in another. Confidering his procedure under certain parts of his adminif. tration, and when embroiling the affairs of India by unneceflary and expenfive wars, and exciting the diftruft and animofity of the native princes against this country, by the infraction of treaties and the extermination of a whole people, no doubt but Mr. Dundas must have highly refented and difapproved of fuch a conduct. But again, when he contemplated the exertions of his almost unprecedented talents in the unexpected bufinefs of restoring peace and tranquillity, of re-eftablishing a confidential intercourfe with the neighbouring powers, and of redeeming the credit of the gocrament, he would have acted highly inconfiflent with thofe feel ings and fentiments, which upon a former occafion excited his indig nation, if he were not at once to acknowledge and commend the merit which had produced fuch falutary effects. At all events it was demonftrably certain, that, at the paffing thefe refolutions, they were not intended as the foundation of any criminal proceedings. Their profeffed object was to recover the confidence of the princes of India, and in the purfuit of that object, it was of no confequence to inquire, whether the lofs of that confidence had been occafioned by the impru dence of the governors, or by the execution of orders from home. Mr. Pitt delivered upon this occalion a part of the fentiments he entertained upon the bufinefs of the Rohilla war, which Mr. Burke afterwards ftated as the ground of the first of his charges against Mr. Haflings; and, though this fubje& does not directly fugget itself till the time when that charge came to be regularly difcuffed, yet as Mr. Pitt, upon that occafion gave a filent vote, we fhall preferve in this place, the obfervations that he delivered upon the business of the Rohillas. Adverting to fome expreffionswhich Mr. Fox had employed upon the fubject, he faid, there was no perfon who had heard him, but would have imagined, that the event had been attended by the most unparalleled barbarity, and the general maffacre of the wretched inhabitants of the country, with out distinction of age, fex or condition. Such was the fpirit of mifreprefentation that now feemed to prevail, that Mr. Pitt would not. be furprifed to find himfelf held out, in confequence of what he was now faying, as attempting to defcribe the forcing a people from their poffeflions, and removing them to a distance, as exceedingly infignificant, and not liable to the reproach of injuftice and inhumanity. He did however confider fuch a mode of extirpation, though far fhort of letting loofe all the horrors of fire and fword, in a moft horribly a larming point of view, and as being fo repugnant to every fentiment of human nature, that nothing could juftify it but the strongest motives of political expediency, and the invincible principles of neceffary juftice. Mr. Pitt however obferved, that it would be highly inconfiftent and abfurd, to confider Mr. Hatings now in the light of a culprit, for any measures taken by him previously to the period, in which he had been nominated by act of parliament governor general of the British poffeffions in India, which was the highest certificate of legiflative approbation. Mr. Pitt did not wonder that Mr. Burke fhould have regretted, that Mr. Dundas had not come forward in the prefent cafe as the profecutor of Mr. Haftings. He must confefs, that, if there were any real guilt to be inveftigated, and any punishment to be inflicted, there could not be a properer perfon than his learned friend, to take the lead upon fo momentous an occafion. But, as an opinion had been avowed by fome gentlemen, that there were fituations where the bounds and established rules of justice ought to be overleaped, and where a profecution ought rather to be conducted by violence and refentment than by the dull forms of ordinary proceedings; perhaps, confidering the bufinefs in that point of view, the gentlemen, who had taken it up, were the fittest perfons to carry it through all its ftages to the defired conclufion. Mr. Pitt added, that he was happy to feel that he fhould come to the business with the most perfect impartiality; and, for himfelf, fhould Mr. Burke bring fully home to Mr. Haftings the violent imputations of atrocious crimes, far from contributing to fereen him, he would wish to bring down upon him the most exemplary punishment. Major Scott obferved, that he had but one way of gueffing at the charges that were intended to be advanced, and that was by reading a pamphlet which had been pub lifhed two years ago, and was entitled, Mr. Burke's Speech on Mr. Fox's India bill. To that pam He phlet he had written a reply, and he appealed to the good fenfe of every man, to declare, whether he had not fatisfactorily refuted every charge of every kind, that had yet been brought against Mr. Haftings. Both the performances were before the public, and they had pronounced in his favour. would go farther, and, as he had refuted what Mr. Burke had already afferted, he was not afraid of pledging himself to refute all that he might hereafter produce in the courfe of this enquiry. Major Scott took confiderable advantage of the allufion Mr. Burke had em, ployed, on the first day of the feftion, to the conduct of the duke of Parma. He complained, that Mr. Burke was now calling for papers, when he ought to be producing fpecific charges. If he had been a fair accufer, and had acted, not for private vengeance, but from a regard to public justice, this would not have been the mode in which he would have proceeded. better things could not reafonably be expected from a man, who took for his model the treacherous and infamous character of the duke of Parma. Major Scott begged to be But indulged |