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breaking, because that of itself is a crime. Mr. Fox quoted the cafe of the captain of a fhip, against whom murder was charged in having thrown his cargo of flaves overboard, in order to prove that he had by finifter means endeavoured to defraud the underwriters of the amount of the infurance. The prefent cafe Mr. Fox faid was exactly correspondent to these. It was impoffible to relate the corrupt tranfactions of Mr. Haflings without relating the crimes that had accompanied them, or to relate the crimes without mentioning the names of the perfons by whom they had been committed. In the impeachment of fir Elijah Impey during the laft feffion, the member who had brought the charge, and he who had fupported it, had accufed the chief justice of Bengal of a legal murder, and yet neither of them had been cenfured by the houfe: and why? Because neither of them had talked of a murder in the technical fenfe of the word; but as a mifdemeanour. Mr. Fox faid, that the complaint of Mr. Haftings in the prefent inftance did not apply to Mr. Burke only, but to every one of the managers. They all of them approved of the ufe Mr. Burke had made of the affair of Nundcomar. They intended to adduce evidence under this head, in order to fhow that the attempts to difcredit the teltimony of Nundcomar were unworthy of regard; and it was furely improper for the house of commons to go out of their way, and prejudice the intended evidence before it was produced. If Mr. Fox were afked his private opinion upon the fubject, he fhould anfwer that he thought it a murder; and what he would fay in his private capacity, he would fay in that houfe or in Westminster-hall.

Mr. Burke obferved, that, if upon. any occafion he had thought it neceffary to entreat the candour of the house, fuch a thought was at prefent the fartheft from his mind. Indulgence was only to be bestowed where there was error, and he was confcious that he had committed none. The cenfure of the house of commons, great and awful as it might in other cafes be deemed, could in this inftance produce no deep effect on his mind. He flood acquitted to his own judgment and confcience, and he could not fuffer himself to appeal from them to any other tribunal. If, after the explanation that had been given, the houfe fhould choofe to continue him in his truft as a manager, he would perfift in the discharge of it to the beft of his ability; but if on the other hand they thought it right to cenfure and remove him, he would receive it as a perfonal favour to himself, fince it would remove him from an arduous undertaking, far above his natural ftrength, and which nothing but his confcioufnefs of its magnitude could have enabled him to fuftain.

The petition having been received, a motion was made that one of the fhort-hand writers appointed by the houfe of commons fhould be examined at the bar refpecting the words complained of in the petition. The question of adjourn ment was then moved, and the houfe having divided the numbers. appeared, ayes 97, нoes 157. It was urged by Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan, that, if members thought proper to pay any attention to the petition, they were bound to examine all its allegations; and, an amendment having been moved by Mr. Addington to confine the exa

mination

mination to the cafe of Nundcomar, it was received upon a divifion. The leaders of oppofition vehemently complained of the intention to examige the fhort-hand writer as a flagrant violation of the privileges of parliament, it not being ufual to cenfure the words of any member of that houfe, unless they were taken down in writing at the time by another member.

At length a refolution was moved by the marquis of Graham, one of the lords of the treasury, that no direction or authority had been given by the house of commons for the purpofe of making any allegation against Mr. Haftings refpecting the death of Nundcomar. Mr. Fox readily acquiefced in this motion, as it contained no expreffion that im, plied that the allegation, ought not to have been made. It was therefore amended by the marquis of Graham and Mr. Pitt; and it was propofed to add, that the words of Mr. Burke complained of in the petition ought not to have been fpoken. Mr. Fox moved a farther amendment, the object of which was to ftate, that the death of Nundcomar had been fpecifically mentioned as an aggravation, in the charges that had formed the bafis of the whole proceeding, and that the declaration of Mr. Burke was confidered by the managers of the profecution as effential to the fupport of the caufe, Mr. Fox faid that the charges originally exhibited had contained the evidence together with the accufations, but that it had been thought proper to feparate them and narrate the facts only in the articles that had been prefented at the bar of the house of fords. He declared, that he thought the proceedings of the last few days

infinitely difgraceful to the house, and dangerous to every future impeachment. The privileges of parliament were effentially evaded in these transactions, and he should think it his duty, if at any future period he was fupported by a majority of that houfe, to move that every thing that related to this bufinefs fhould be expunged from the journals. The amendment of Mr. Fox was rejected; and, the refolution being carried, it was moved by Mr. Bouverie, that the thanks of the houfe fhould be given to Mr. Burke and the reft of the managers, for their exertions and affiduity in the profecution, and that they should be defired to perfevere. The previous queftion was moved upon this propofition by fir Richard Arden.

A farther transaction relative to the trial of Mr. Haftings was the motion of Mr. Marsham on the fixteenth of June, for a profecution againft the printer of the newfpaper, entitled the World, for a libel upon the house of commons, in having flated, that "the trial was to be put off to another feffion, unless the houfe of lords had fpirit enough to put an end to fo fhameful a buti nefs."

Mr. Dundas entered into his annual detail of the revenues of India on the firft of July. He spoke of them with confiderable moderation, and allowed, that the fituation of Bombay, the debt at home and certain other particulars had been flated at too high a rate in the estimate of the preceding year. He however calculated the net revenue of our poffeffions in India, after every ar ticle of expenditure in that country was deducted, at 1,820,0001; and from thence inferred the most favourable profpect of our future fituation

in that country. Mr. Francis obferved, that it was in vain to ftate upon paper a great furplus of revenue in that country, which could not be shown either to have been applied to the discharge of the debt, or to the purpose of the investment; and he mentioned feveral particulars in which he conceived Mr. Dundas to have placed the fubject in too favourable a light. Major Scott remarked, that Mr. Francis had now, for the first time that an India budget had been opened, omitted to fay one word as to the ftate of the government of that country, or to reprobate, as he had been accustomed to do, the fyftem under which it was administered. That fyftem he affirmed to be the fame, which had been introduced by Mr. Haftings, adopted by lord Cornwallis and fanctioned by the king's minifters. Thus the houfe of commons appeared, as he obferved, to be alternately engaged in condemning and reprobating the fyftem when they acted in one capacity, and beftowing upon it the highest applause when they acted in another.

On the first of July a petition was prefented to the houfe of commons on the part of the Eaft-India company, defiring to be permitted to increase their capital by the fum of one million, the whole to be fubfcribed by the prefent proprietors of Eaft India flock. They apologized for the late period at which the petition was prefented, by obferving, that they had waited for the arrival of certain fhips, in order to be enabled to ftate more precifely the present fituation of their finances, and to demonftrate to the house the propriety and juftice of granting their demand. Mr. Dundas entered into a calculation of their revenues,

from which he inferred that they laboured under a prefent deficiency to the amount of 2,930,000l. Their charter would expire in the year 1791; but, upon giving proper notice to parliament, they were entitled to an extenfion of three years; and he undertook to prove that in the year 1794 they would be able to liquidate the whole of their present embarraffments. They owed indeed, exclufively of the articles that entered into his calculation, fix millions of debt in India; but, into whatever hands the territories fell at the expiration of the charter, there could be no objection on the part of the future proprietor to enter with the encumbrance of this debt into the poffeffion of a territory, whose net revenue was 1,500,ecol. per annum. Mr. Dundas trufted no man would infer from what he now said, that there was any probability the company's charter would not be renewed. It might be depended upon, that their interefts and the interefts of the public were the fame, and that they must rise or fall, exist or perish together. Such are the expreffions that we find put into his mouth in the materials from which our narrative is drawn ; but on a future day he excepted to this reprefentation of his language, and faid that he had meant to speak only of their commerce. The question of the renewal of their charter as a territorial company he had left untouched, and he defired to be underflood as neither pledging himself nor the executive government, either that the charter of the company would or that it would not be renewed.

The bill that was brought in upon the petition experienced a very flight degree of oppofition either in the houfe of commons or the house of

lords,

lords. In the ftage of the bufinefs immediately fubfequent to the fecond reading in the latter, lord Thurlow however expreffed himself upon the fubject with great apparent candour and impartiality. He lamented that measures of fo great magnitude fhould be introduced at fo late a period of the year, perfuaded as he was that it was not more a matter of inconvenience to individual members of parliament when they were thus introduced than to minifters themselves, who, he was fatisfied, could not fo well underftand their bearings, or attend to them in the manner or with the degree of caution which their importance required. As far as he was acquainted with the project under confideration, taking it merely in a problematical and fpeculative point of view, he was inclined to think well of it; but there were certain articles in the detail of accounts that had been laid upon their table, refpecting which he entertained doubts and fufpicion. The house he conceived was juftifiable in fuffering the measure to be put in practice, but they could not take upon themfelves to be refponfible for the event. The language which they held out to the fubfcribers might be thus explained: "We

have called for the accounts of the company, and done all in our power to afcertain whether there were danger in the fpeculation. The grounds upon which we proceeded are before you: you muft understand every ar ticle of the accounts much better than we do; judge for yourselves, and act as you think proper." Lord Thurlow ftrongly excepted to a claufe in the bill, authorifing guardians to veft the property of minors in the additional stock; and he alluded to a claufe of a fimilar nature, which had escaped in the bill of the prefent feffion, for raising the fum of a million for the ufe of government by the mode of life annuity. He faid, that it was an invariable maxim in the courts of law, that no fuch difcretion fhould be permitted in guardians. An adult, if he purchafed stock of any fort, could fell out when he conceived the adventure to have become dangerous; but the property of an infant was irremoveable. Lord Thurlow had a still stronger objection to the mode of annuity, which was the infallible fource of selfishness and indolence, and difcouraged trade, adventure, population and marriage. The claufe relating to minors was at the inftigation of lord Thurlow taken out of the bill.

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152

CHA P. IX.

Difcuffion of the Slave Trade. Queftion deferred. Mr. Addington Speaker. Budget. Loan. Taxes. Excife on Tobacco. Motion on the Finances. Demand of Corn from the French refused. Prorogation.

Τ

THE fubject of the flave trade,
which had been fuggefted to
the confideration of parliament in
the preceding feffion, was not regu-
larly refumed till the twelfth of May.
In the interval various petitions had
been prefented in the laft and pre-
fent feffion from perfons principaily
interested, the object of which was
to demand that fo fatal a measure as
they conceived to be that of the
abolition of the African trade might
not be adopted. The places in
which the petitions had originated,
were London, Liverpool, Bristol,
Lancaster and Glafgow. In the
mean time the report of the com-
mittee of privy council, of which
Mr. Pitt had given notice in the pre-
ceding fellion, was laid upon the ta-
ble of the houfe of commons on the
twenty-fifth of April, and the regu-
lar difcuffion of the bufinefs was at
length opened by Mr. Wilberforce
in a fpeech, which has been highly
commended for the energy of its
ftructure and the perfuafiveness of
its eloquence.

He began with obferving, that he did not mean to appeal to the paffions of the house, but to their cool and impartial reafon. He did not mean to accufe any one, but to take fhame to himself, in common indeed with the whole parliament of Great Britain, for having faffered go odious

a

trade to be carried on under their authority. He deprecated every kind of reflection against the various defcription of perfons who were most immediately involved in this wretched tranfaction. It was necessary for him to ftate in the outfet, that he did not conceive the witneffes who were examined, and particularly interested witneffes, to be judges of the argument.

In the matters of fact that were related by them he admitted their competency, but confident affertions, not of facts, but of fuppofed confequences of facts, went for nothing in his eftimation. Mr. Wilberforce divided his fubject into three parts, the nature of the trade as it affected Africa itself, the appearance it affumed in the tranfportation of the flaves, and the confiderations that were fuggefted by their actual state in the Weft Indies. With refpect to the first it was found by experience to be juft fuch, as every man who used his reason would infallibly have concluded it to be, What must be the natural confequence of a flave trade with Africa, with a country valt in its extent, not utterly barbarous, but civilized in a very fmall degree? Was it not plain, that he muft suffer from it; that her favage manners must be rendered ftill more ferocious, and that a flave trade carried on round her coats muft

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