1788.

liament than any which, under that law, had as yet been allowed to exist? That CHAP. I. any danger, however, peculiar to itself, arose from this army, it was, unless for the purpose of the moment, weak to pretend. Notwithstanding the immense influence of the minister, so much suspicion was excited by the contrast between his former professions, and the unlimited power at which he now appeared to be grasping, that the bill was carried through the first stages of its progress, by very small majorities. With a view to mitigate this alarm, Mr. Pitt proposed that certain clauses should be added; the first, to limit the number of troops, beyond which the orders of the Board of Control should not be obligatory on the East India Company; the second, to prevent the Board from increasing the salary attached to any office under the Company, except with the concurrence of Directors and Parliament; the third, to prevent it, except with the same concurrence, from ordering any gratuity for services performed; the fourth, to oblige the Directors annually to lay before parliament the account of the Company's receipts and disbursements.

The annexation of these clauses opened a new source of argument against the bill. A declaratory bill, with enacting clauses, involved, it was said, an absurdity which resembled a contradiction in terms. It declared that an act had a certain meaning; but a meaning limited by enactments yet remaining to be made. It declared that a law without limiting clauses, and a law with them, was one and the same thing. By the bill before them, if passed, the house would declare that certain powers had been vested in the Board of Control, and yet not vested, without certain conditions, which had not had existence. Besides, if such conditions were now seen to be necessary to prevent the powers claimed under the act from producing the worst of consequences, what was to be thought of the legislature for granting such dangerous powers? It was asked, if this was not so disgraceful to the wisdom of parliament, if it saw not the danger, or to its virtue, if it saw it without providing the remedy, as to afford a proof, that in 1784 no such powers were meant by the legislature to be conveyed?

A protest in the upper house, signed Portland, Carlisle, Devonshire, Portchester, Derby, Sandwich, Cholmondely, Powis, Cardiff, Craven, Bedford, Loughborough, Fitzwilliam, Scarborough, Buckinghamshire,-fifteen lords— exhibits, on the subject of the patronage, the following words: "The patronage of the Company-and this seems to be the most serious terror to the people of England-the Commissioners of Control enjoy in the worst mode, without that responsibility which is the natural security against malversation and abuse.

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BOOK VI. They cannot immediately appoint; but they have that weight of recommendation and influence, which must ever inseparably attend on substantial power, and which, in the present case, has not any where been attempted to be denied.— Nor is this disposal of patronage without responsibility the only evil that characterizes the system. All the high powers and prerogatives with which the commissioners are vested, they may exercise invisibly-and thus, for a period at least, invade, perhaps, in a great measure finally baffle, all political responsibility; for they have a power of administering to their clerks and other officers an oath of secrecy framed for the occasion by themselves; and they possess in the India House the suspicious instrument of a Secret Committee, bound to them by an oath."

CHAP. II.

The Trial of Mr. Hastings.

1788.

speech of Mr.

THE trial of Mr. Hastings commenced in Westminster Hall on the 13th day CHAP. II. of February, 1788. So great was the interest which this extraordinary event had excited, that persons of the highest elevation crowded to the scene.* After Opening two days were spent in the preliminary and accustomed ceremonies, on the 15th Burke. Mr. Burke began. His oration was continued on the 16th, 18th, and 19th, and lasted four days. It was the object of this address to convey to the members of the court a general idea of the character and circumstances of the people of Hindustan; of their situation under the government of Englishmen; of the miseries which he represented them as enduring through the agency of Mr. Hastings; and of the motives, namely, pecuniary corruption, to which he ascribed the offences with which that Governor was charged. The most remark

* Take the following account, from the publication entitled, Trial of W. Hastings, Esq. &c. p. 1. -"Previous to their Lordships approach to the Hall, about eleven o'clock, her Majesty, with the Princesses Elizabeth, Augusta, and Mary, made their appearance in the Duke of Newcastle's gallery. Her Majesty was dressed in a fawn-coloured satin, her head-dress plain, with a very slender sprinkling of diamonds. The royal box was graced with the Duchess of Gloucester and the young Prince. The ladies were all in morning dresses; a few with feathers and variegated flowers in their head-dress, but nothing so remarkable as to attract public attention. "Mrs. Fitzherbert was in the royal box.

"The Dukes of Cumberland, Gloucester, and York, and the Prince of Wales, with their trains, followed the Chancellor, and closed the procession.

"Upwards of 200 of the Commons, with the Speaker, were in the gallery.

"The Managers, Charles Fox and all, were in full dress.

"But a very few of the Commons were full dressed-some of them were in boots. Their seats were covered with green cloth-the rest of the building was one red."

"Mr. Hastings stood for some time-On a motion from a Peer, the Chancellor allowed, as a favour, that the prisoner should have a chair-And he sat the whole time-but occasionally, when he spoke to his Counsel.

"His Counsel were Mr. Law, Mr. Plomer, Mr. Dallas.-For the Commons-Dr. Scott and Dr. Lawrence; Messrs. Mansfield, Piggot, Burke, and Douglas.

"A party of horse-guards, under the command of a Field Officer, with a Captain's party from the horse-grenadiers, attended daily during the trial.

"A body of 300 foot-guards also kept the avenues clear, and a considerable number of constables attended for the purpose of taking offenders into custody."

1788.

BOOK VI. able passage in the speech was that which related to the enormities imputed to Devi, or Deby Sing; a native placed by Mr. Hastings, in a situation of confidence and power. It cannot be omitted; both because the delivery of it is matter of history, whatever may be the proper judgment with respect to the accusations which it brought; and also, because it gave birth to several subsequent proceedings on the trial. This man was admitted; according to the accuser, improperly, and for corrupt ends; to farm the revenues of a large district of country. After a time, complaints arrived at Calcutta, of cruelties which he practised, in extorting money from the people; upon whom, contrary to his instructions, he had raised the rents. Mr. Patterson, one of the gentlemen in the civil service of the Company, was deputed, in the capacity of a Commissioner, to inquire into the foundation of the complaints. It was from his report, that the statements of Mr. Burke, reported in the following words, were derived.

"The poor Ryots, or husbandmen, were treated in a manner that would never gain belief, if it was not attested by the records of the Company; and Mr. Burke thought it necessary to apologize to their Lordships for the horrid relation, with which he would be obliged to harrow up their feelings: the worthy Commissioner Patterson, who had authenticated the particulars of this relation, had wished that, for the credit of human nature, he might have drawn a veil over them; but as he had been sent to inquire into them, he must, in discharge of his duty, state those particulars, however shocking they were to his feelings. The cattle and corn of the husbandmen were sold for less than a quarter of their value, and their huts reduced to ashes! the unfortunate owners were obliged to borrow from usurers, that they might discharge their bonds, which had unjustly and illegally been extorted from them while they were in confinement; and such was the determination of the infernal fiend, Devi Sing, to have these bonds discharged, that the wretched husbandmen were obliged to borrow money, not at twenty, or thirty, or forty, or fifty, but at SIX HUNDRED per cent. to satisfy him! Those who could not raise the money, were most cruelly tortured: cords were drawn tight round their fingers, till the flesh of the four on each hand was actually incorporated, and became one solid mass: the fingers were then separated again by wedges of iron and wood driven in between them.Others were tied two and two by the feet, and thrown across a wooden bar, upon which they hung, with their feet uppermost; they were then beat on the soles of the feet, till their toe-nails dropped off.

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They were afterwards beat about the head till the blood gushed out at the mouth, nose, and ears; they were also flogged upon the naked body with bamboo

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canes, and prickly bushes, and, above all, with some poisonous weeds, which CHAP. II. were of a most caustic nature, and burnt at every touch.-The cruelty of the monster who had ordered all this, had contrived how to tear the mind as well as the body; he frequently had a father and son tied naked to one another by the feet and arms, and then flogged till the skin was torn from the flesh; and he had the devilish satisfaction to know that every blow must hurt; for if one escaped the son, his sensibility was wounded by the knowledge he had that the blow had fallen upon his father: the same torture was felt by the father, when he knew that every blow that missed him had fallen upon his son.

"The treatment of the females could not be described :-dragged forth from the inmost recesses of their houses, which the religion of the country had made so many sanctuaries, they were exposed naked to public view; the virgins were carried to the Court of Justice, where they might naturally have looked for protection; but now they looked for it in vain; for in the face of the Ministers of Justice, in the face of the spectators, in the face of the sun, those tender and modest virgins were brutally violated. The only difference between their treatment and that of their mothers was, that the former were dishonoured in the face of day, the latter in the gloomy recesses of their dungeon. Other females had the nipples of their breasts put in a cleft bamboo, and torn off, What modesty in all nations most carefully conceals, this monster revealed to view, and consumed by slow fires; nay, some of the tools of this monster Devi Sing had, horrid to tell! carried their unnatural brutality so far as to drink in the source of generation and life.

"Here Mr. Burke dropped his head upon his hands a few minutes; but having recovered himself, said, that the fathers and husbands of the hapless females were the most harmless and industrious set of men. Content with scarcely

sufficient for the support of nature, they gave almost the whole produce of their labour to the East India Company: those hands which had been broken by persons under the Company's authority, produced to all England the comforts of their morning and evening tea; for it was with the rent produced by their industry, that the investments were made for the trade to China, where the tea which we use was bought." *

* The words of the quotation are taken from the short account of the speech which is given in the History of the Trial of Warren Hastings, Esq., published by Debrett. The account, though short, is the best which I have been able to procure. The report to which I have had access, in the MS. of the short-hand writer, is exceedingly confused, and indistinct. Upon this passage, the compiler of the History of the Trial adds, in a note, "In this part of his speech Mr. Burke's VOL. III.

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