1785.

Bengal. "I had long before," he says, in a letter to the Secret Committee of CHAP. I. Directors, "been so much enlivened (and your honourable house was no doubt enlivened also) by the happy prospects held out in the late Governor-General's letter to you of the 16th December, 1783, published in several newspapers both foreign and domestic, that I flattered myself with hopes of finding such resources in Bengal alone, as might relieve any exigency or distress in the rest of India, resulting from a loss of the assignment, or from other misfortunes; but in the range of my inquiries, no distinct traces were to be discovered of these prognosticated funds. I had it seems formed a visionary estimate; the reality disappeared like a phantom on the approach of experiment, and I looked here for it in vain. The government declared themselves strangers to Mr. Hastings's letter, and indicated not a few symptoms of their own necessities."*

They, accordingly, assured Lord Macartney," that the exhausted state of the finances of the Bengal government would not admit of any extraordinary and continued aid to Fort St. George;"† expressing at the same time their desire to contribute what assistance was in their power to relieve the distress, which the loss of the revenues, they acknowledged, must produće. ‡

A dangerous illness prolonged the stay of Lord Macartney at Calcutta, and Lord Maprevious to his departure, he received a dispatch from the Court of Directors, cartney chosen in which was announced to him his appointment to be Governor-General of General. Bengal. After his removal from the Government, after the subversion of his favourite plans at Madras; an appointment, almost immediate, and without solicitation, to the highest station in the government of India, is not the clearest proof of systematic plans, and correspondent execution. The motives, at the same time, appear to have been more than usually honourable and pure. Though Lord Macartney, from the praises which Mr. Fox and his party had bestowed upon him in parliament, might have been suspected of views in conformity with theirs; though he had no connexion with the existing administration which could render it personally desirable to promote him; though the Board of Control had even entered upon the examination of the differences between him and Mr. Hastings, with minds unfavourably disposed, the examination impressed the mind of Mr. Dundas with so strong an idea of the merit of that

*Letter to the Secret Committee, 27th July, 1785.

+ Barrow's Life of Lord Macartney, i. 282.

The conduct of Lord Macartney in this important business is displayed in a series of official documents entitled "Papers relating to the affairs of the Carnatic," vol. ii. printed by order of the House of Commons in 1803.

BOOK VI. Lord's administration, that he induced Mr. Pitt to concur with him in recom. mending Lord Macartney to the Court of Directors, that is, in appointing him Governor-General of Bengal.

1785.

He accepts not the appointment.

The gratification offered to those powerful passions, the objects of which are wealth and power, had not so great an ascendancy over the mind of Lord Macartney, as to render him insensible to other considerations. His health required a season of repose, and the salutary influence of his native clime. The state of the government in India appeared to require reforms; reforms, without which the administration could not be successful; but which he was not sure of obtaining power to effect. The members of the Bengal administration had been leagued with Mr. Hastings in opposing and undervaluing his government at Madras; and peculiar objections applied to any thought of co-operation with the person who was left by Mr. Hastings at its head, He resolved, therefore, to decline the appointment; at least for a season; till a visit to England should enable him to determine, by conference with ministers and directors, the arrangements which he might have it in his power to effect.

He arrived in England on the 9th of January, 1786, and on the 13th had a conference with the chairman, and deputy chairman, of the Court of Directors. The regulations on which he insisted, as of peculiar necessity for the more successful government of India, were two. The entire dependance of the military upon the civil power, he represented, as not only recommended by the most obvious dictates of reason, but, conformable to the practice of the English government in all its other dependancies, and even to that of the East India Company, previous to the instructions of 1774; instructions which were framed on the spur of the occasion, and created two independent powers in the same administration. Secondly, a too rigid adherence to the rule of seniority, in filling the more important departments of the State; or even to that of confining the choice to the Company's servants, was attended, he affirmed, with the greatest inconveniences; deprived the government of the inestimable use of talents; lessened the motives to meritorious exertion among the servants; and fostered a spirit, most injurious to the government, of independence and disobedience as towards its head. With proper regulations in these particulars; a power of deciding against the opinion of the Council; and such changes among the higher servants, as were required by the particular circumstances of the present case, he conceived that he might, but without them, he could not, accept of the government of India, with hopes of usefulness to his country, or honour to himself.

A minute of this conversation was transmitted by the Chairs to the Board of

1785.

Control; and on the 20th of February, Lord Macartney met Mr. Dundas, and CHAP. I. Mr. Pitt. Even since his arrival, in answer to an attack by Mr. Fox, upon the inconsistency of appointing that nobleman to the chief station in the Indian government, almost at the very moment when his principal measure had been reversed, Mr. Pitt had been called forth to pronounce a warm panegyric upon Lord Macartney; and to declare that, with the exception of that one arrangement, his conduct in his government had merited all the praise which language could bestow; and pointed him out as a most eligible choice for the still more important trust of Governor-General of Bengal. To the new regulations or reforms, proposed by Lord Macartney, Mr. Pitt gave a sort of general approbation; but with considerable latitude, in regard to the mode and time of alteration. Lord Macartney remarked, that what he had observed in England had rather increased, than diminished, the estimate which he had formed of the support which would be necessary to counteract the opposition, which, both at home and abroad, he was sure to experience; and he pointed in direct terms to what he saw of the enmity of Mr. Hastings, the influence which he retained among both those who were, and those who had been the servants of the Company, as well as the influence which arose from the opinion of the favour borne to him by some of those persons who were high in the administration. His opinion was, that some distinguished mark of favour, which would impose in some degree upon minds that were adversely disposed, and proclaim to all, the power with which he might expect to be supported, was necessary to encounter the difficulties with which he would have to contend. He alluded to a British peerage, to which, even on other grounds, he conceived that he was not without a claim.

66

No further communication was vouchsafed to Lord Macartney; and three days Lord Cornwallis apafter this conversation, he learned, that Lord Cornwallis was appointed Governor- pointed Governor-GeGeneral of Bengal. The appointment of Lord Macartney was opposed by neral. several members of the administration, among others the Chancellor Thurlow, whose impetuosity gave weight to his opinions; it was also odious to all those among the East India Directors and Proprietors, who were the partisans either of Hastings or Macpherson. When, therefore," says a letter of Lord Melville, against such an accumulation of discontent and opposition, Mr. Pitt was induced by me to concur in the return of Lord Macartney to India, as GovernorGeneral, it was not unnatural that both of us should have felt hurt, that he did not rather repose his future fortune in our hands, than make it the subject of a sine qua non preliminary. And I think if Lord Macartney had known us as well then as he did afterwards, he would have felt as we did." These were the

1785.

BOOK VI. private grounds: As public ones, the same letter states, that the precedent was disapproved of indicating to the world that a premium was necessary to induce persons of consideration in England to accept the office of Governor-General in India, at the very moment when the resolution was taken of not confining the high situations in India to the servants of the Company.*

Proceedings

in the House

We have now arrived at the period of another parliamentary proceeding, of Commons, which excited attention by its pomp, and by the influence upon the public mind which lead to of those whose interests it affected, much more than by any material change the impeachment of W. which it either produced, or was calculated to produce, upon the state of affairs Hastings, Esq. in India. In a history of those affairs, a very contracted summary of the voluminous records which are left of it, is all for which a place can be usefully found.

Views of the parties in parliament.

Motion of

Mr. Burke for papers.

The parties into which parliament was now divided; the ministerial, headed by Mr. Pitt; and that of the opposition, by Mr. Fox, had both, at a preceding period, found it their interest to arraign the government in India. The interest of the party in opposition remained, in this respect, the same as before. That of the ministry was altogether changed. It appeared to those whose interest it still was to arraign the government of India, that the most convenient form the attack could assume was that of an accusation of Mr. Hastings. The ministry had many reasons to dislike the scrutiny into which such a measure would lead. But they were too far committed, by the violent censures, which they had formerly pronounced, to render it expedient for them to oppose it. Their policy was to gain credit by an appearance of consent, and to secure their own objects, as far as it might be done, under specious pretences, during the course of the proceedings.

The vehement struggles of the parliamentary parties had prevented them, during the year 1784, from following up by any correspondent measure the violent censures which had fallen upon the administration of India. The preceding threats of Mr. Burke received a more determinate character, when he gave notice, on the 20th of June, 1785, "That, if no other gentleman would undertake the business, he would, at a future day, make a motion respecting the conduct of a gentleman just returned from India." On the first day of the following session he was called upon by Major Scott, who had acted in the avowed capacity of the agent of Mr. Hastings, to produce his charges, and commit the subject to investigation. On the 18th of February, 1786, he gave commence

*Letter of Lord Melville, in Barrow's Macartney, i. 330.

1786.

ment to the undertaking, by a motion for a variety of papers; and a debate of CHAP. I. great length ensued, more remarkable for the criminations, with which the leaders of the two parties appeared desirous of aspersing one another, than for any light which it threw upon the subjects in dispute.

Mr. Burke began his speech, by requiring that the Journals of the House should be opened, and that the 44th and 45th of that series of resolutions, which Mr. Dundas had moved and the House adopted on the 29th of May 1782, should be read: "1. That,—for the purpose of conveying entire conviction to the minds of the native princes, that to commence hostilities, without just provocation, against them, and to pursue schemes of conquest and extent of dominion, are measures, repugnant to the wish, the honour, and the policy of this nationthe parliament of Great Britain should give some signal mark of its displeasure against those, (in whatever degree entrusted with the charge of the East India Company's affairs), who shall appear wilfully to have adopted, or countenanced, a system, tending to inspire a reasonable distrust of the moderation, justice, and good faith of the British nation:-2. That Warren Hastings, Esq. GovernorGeneral of Bengal, and William Hornby, Esq. President of the Council at Bombay, having in sundry instances acted in a manner repugnant to the honour and policy of this nation, and thereby brought great calamities on India, and enormous expenses on the East India Company, it is the duty of the Directors of the said Company, to pursue all legal and effectual means for the removal of the said Governor-General and President from their respective offices, and to recall them to Great Britain." Mr. Burke, after remarking that the present task would have become the author of these resolutions better than him, vented his sarcasms on a zeal against Indian delinquency, which was put on or put off, acording as convenience suggested; exhibited a short history of the notice which parliament had taken of Indian affairs; and, in the next place, adduced the considerations which at the present moment appeared to call upon the House to institute penal proceedings. It then remained for him to present a view of the different courses Mode of prowhich, in such a case, it was competent for that assembly to pursue. In the first ceeding against Hastplace, the House might effect a prosecution by the Attorney-General. But to ings recommended by this mode he had three very strong objections. First, the person who held that Mr. Burke. office appeared to be unfriendly to the prosecution; whatever depended upon his exertions was, therefore, an object of despair. Secondly, Mr. Burke regarded a jury as little qualified to decide upon matters of the description of those which would form the subject of the present judicial inquiry. Thirdly, he looked upon the Court of King's Bench as a tribunal radically unfit to be trusted in questions