it was deliberately contrived to gain time | Asoph ul Dowla, at the hazard of her for calling in new power, and that power to own. When the father once drew his decide, which had not heard Mr. Sheri- sabre to kill him, she fell down upon him, dan's speech; or at least to counteract and thus rescued him, though at the loss by delay what could not be resisted by of her own blood, for she was wounded in argument, namely, the instant impression the scuffle. This was an action Sujah ul made by that speech upon the minds of all Dowla was very capable of, for he hated who heard it; as if the hour of conviction and despised his son; and so far from ought not to be the period of decision. leaving him his treasures and his personal He said, he had wished to pay his tribute estate, he would willingly have deprived of applause to that wonderful performance him of his succession: he had heard this at the moment when the impression of it fact from Mr. Hastings himself. Mr. was strong upon him; that he doubted Francis said, that when he was at Calcutta, much whether he should have been able Mr. Hastings used to assign a reason for to do it even then, in the instant of feel- his partiality to the Begum, which he ing, nor should he be able to do it now, thought at the time a very tolerable one, after many hours of reflection. That to viz. that the Begum had been recomdo justice to the ability, to the industry, to mended to his particular care and protecthe arguments, and to the astonishing tion by the late Sujah Dowlah in the eloquence of his hon. friend, would require most pathetic manner. That Mr. Hasa power of ability and eloquence approach- tings did take her part in 1775, when, as ing to his own; he should therefore leave he said, (with a view to reflect on general that task to others: that he himself looked Clavering, col. Monson, and Mr. Francis) higher-to the moral mind, that created Mr. Bristow, appointed by them, had and directed the intellectual power; to the taken an improper part against the Begum. honourable, generous, and virtuous heart, That the elder Begum was the rightful which was the true source of all those heir to the soubadary of Oude; at least, splendid efforts and brilliant operations of it was through her that the principality intellect, which the House had only ad- came into the family of Sujah Dowlah; mired as acts of the understanding; to consequently she had a better right to the that he attached himself. That he had jaghires than the present nabob had to always considered the human heart as the his throne. That whereas it was insisted real source of human wisdom and folly, as on, that the plunder of the personal prowell as of virtue and vice; that there- perty was resolved on by Mr. Hastings fore the Book of Wisdom, to express in consequence, and as a punishment of the extremity of all folly, had declar- the resistance made by the Begum to the ed, "The fool hath said in his heart." resumption of the jaghires, it appeared by If this were true, the world would mea- the positive evidence of Mr. Middleton, sure the virtues of his hon. friend by given at the bar, that the resumption of his abilities; they would judge of the pure the jaghires was resolved on after the and copious fountain by the magnificence seizure of her treasures. of the stream, and give him a higher and more honourable place than even among the greatest of mankind. That his virtues, and, of course, his abilities, swelled and expanded, according to the occasion that brought them into action, and spontaneously rose to a level with the new office which they were called upon to execute. To him, indeed, that day had decreed a a glorious triumph; a triumph independent of victory; and if defeat were possible, victorious in defeat. Mr. Francis then entered upon a statement and explanation of some particulars relative to the question, which were not, he said, sufficiently explained or insisted on, and some of them not even understood. He mentioned that the Begum had saved the life of her son, the present Nabob Here he earnestly entreated the committee to observe, that when all the other pretences by justifications, set up in defence of this atrocious act of violence, had been refuted or abandoned, the friends and advocates of Mr. Hastings had been driven at last to the old-established resource of tyranny, to the common profligate plea of state necessity, viz. that the Company's affairs, in the middle of the year 1781, when, Mr. Hastings went up to Benares, were reduced to such distress, and all their pecuniary resources so completely exhausted, that measures of all sorts, and any sort, were to be justified, provided they tended to procure a supply of money, and an imme. diate relief to that extreme distress. That, from the death of sir John Clavering 1 in August, 1777, Mr. Hastings was unquestionably the master of the British government, not only of Bengal, but of all India; and, as he would be fairly entitled to the merit, so he ought to answer for the ill consequences of every thing that was done during the existence of that power. That, on the 10th of August 1778, Mr. Hastings had laid before the board an official estimate of resources and disbursements, which stated an unappropriated balance of about 2,400,000l. sterling which he expected to remain in the Company's treasury, (after deducting all the probable disbursements from the expected resources) on the 30th of April, 1779. From this balance, Mr. Hastings deducted thirty lacks of rupees for extra disbursements, not, provided for in the estimate, leaving a corrected balance of cash to the amount of above two millions sterling, which he asserted, and, by all manner of official documents, proved, would exist in the Bengal treasury on the 30th of April, 1779. Of what nature, then, were the subsequent measures, pursued by Mr. Hastings, which, in so short a period as from April, 1779, to July, 1781, had not only wasted that great surplus, but which forced him to incur a heavy bonded debt, and yet left the Company's affairs in such an abandoned state of penury and distress, as might, with some colour of reason, be alleged and pleaded in justification of the various crimes committed by Mr. Hastings for the avowed purpose of getting money, and which were the subject of the last and present charge against him? Mr. Francis requested the committee to carry this reflection in their minds when they should come to inquire into the wars made by Mr. Hastings, and other causes of the monstrous waste of the public property committed to his care. Mr. Francis offered other pertinent observations as to the facts stated in the charge, and quoted the following passage from a letter of Mr. Middleton to sir Elijah Impey: "I soon found that no real advantage was to be obtained by proceeding, at once, to violent extremities with the Begum; and that she was only to be attacked through the medium of her confidential servants, whom it required considerable address to get hold of: however, we at last effected it; and, by using some few severities with them, we at length came at the secret hoards of this old lady!" What was this, asked Mr. Francis, but the language of thieves and ruffians, plotting in a night-cellar to break into a house, and rob some innocent woman of her property? Mr. Francis went on with a series of observations, in allusion to the facts in the charge. He said, that it was true, he thought the Begum had no right to appropriate the produce of the conquest and plunder of the Rohilla country, while the money due to the Company on account of that war remained unpaid. No opinion of his ever went farther than that. The council never interfered, otherwise than by approving and confirming the guarantee given by our resident to the final settlement between the Nabob and his mother, on the 15th Oct. 1775, after he had already obtained from her above 600,000%. That treaty was a receipt in full, a security against farther demands, and a quietus for ever. Mr. Hastings went farther than any member of the council, in approving that settlement; though now he says, that the whole of this transaction passed under the order and guidance of the board, which excluded him from any share in their acts, equally in such as he approved, and in such as he disapproved! At that time, his language was different; but now, it seems, he may approve of an act, and vote for it, and yet he is to have no share in it. Whether he approved of it or not, he was bound by the sense of the majority, which constituted the act of government. In the present instance, the council were unanimous, and Mr. Hastings took the lead. It was true, the Begum, at her own desire, paid a small part of the above demand in goods of different sorts. Whether Mr. Bristow did right or wrong in accepting of such articles, the council certainly did right in ordering them to be sold by public auction. The suspicion which unavoidably fixed itself upon arbitrary valuations and private contracts, cannot exist in the case of a public auction. Mr. Middleton's evidence will shew in what manner the property of the Begums was sold in 1782. It was true, that he, (Mr. Francis) in 1775, had expressed his surprise that two ladies, locked up in a seraglio, should talk of meddling with affairs of state: but was that any reason for plundering them of their property; for robbing them of all they had; for treating them with the most scandalous injustice, extortion, violence, and cruelty? Could the opinion attributed to him be accommodated to such actions? And if it could, was it just to allow Mr. Hastings, who never followed his advice in any thing, to shelter himself under the concurrence of his opinion? These unfortunate women were, indeed, disqualified by their sex and situation from meddling in the affairs of government, and perfectly incapable of disturbing it if they would. The attempt to charge them with a design to extirpate the English out of India, was equally base and ridiculous; as if it were possible for two old women, locked up in a seraglio, and two decrepit eunuchs, first to depose the Nabob, their son and sovereign, and then to expel the English, which could not be effected by a combination of the four first powers of India, assisted by the French. This absurd tence, in addition to all the cruelty and injustice of the proceeding, fixed upon it a brand of falsehood and ignominy which would render the name of an Englishman, in Asia, contemptible as well as odious for ever. pre Mr. Nicholls observed, that whilst he paid a just tribute to the astonishing eloquence and highly cultivated talents of Mr. Sheridan, he must contend, that the whole of his fascinating harangue had turned upon a fallacy. The question was not whether the Begums were in actual rebellion, but whether Mr. Hastings was given to understand that they were so, in a manner sufficiently plausible, to induce him to credit the alleged fact. Mr. Nicholls entered into a series of reasoning upon the right construction of the words in Mr. Middleton's letter of the 6th December, 1781, "and the measures heretofore proposed," which he affirmed were to be understood differently from the manner in which they had been argued in the speech of the mover of the motion. He remarked, that taking the jaghire from the Begums, two women shut up in a zenana, and incapable of managing such a property, for which they received an equivalent, was a benefit, and not an injury. He also defended the seizure of the treasures, referring the committee to Mr. Middleton's letters, and to other documents, to prove that the Nabob had always considered the wealth as his property, by inheritance. Major Scott rose and said:-Before I request the indulgence of the committee on the subject of the present debate, I shall take the liberty of offering a few words, in reply to the hon. gentleman (Mr. Francis) who has just sat down. Allusions have been made to publications out of this House, and to the means that have been taken to bias the public upon the important question now under consideration. I have no scruple to say, that Mr. Hastings, instead of being merely an accused, is a shamefully persecuted man; and that means the most indecent, scandalous, and infamous, have been resorted to, in order to prejudice him in the opinion. of those parties who divide this kingdom, and who may be the ultimate judges of this important question. In the first speech made by the hon. gentleman in this House, he declared, "that he should be sorry to be suspected of retaining a spark of personal animosity against Mr. Hastings. We are both," he added, "I believe, men of tempers too warm to be capable of resentments; our contest is at an end, and the hostilities it produced expired with it." If it had not been for this solemn declaration, I should be led to conclude, that he was the author of a pamphlet, which I now hold in my hand, as the style of the work bears so near a resemblance to the minutes and writings of the hon. gentleman. Sir, I pay him no compliment, when I say his style is a good one, and something peculiar. But, Sir, be the author who he will, I take upon me to affirm, that a more infamous attempt to oppress a man, shamefully persecuted, was never prac tised; and the man who did it, has a heart blacker than ever existed in a human frame. As the major was proceeding to read the pamphlet, Mr. Courtenay, rising to order, contended, that it was exceedingly improper for any member to read, as a part of his speech, an anonymous pamphlet. Mr. Francis, expressing his astonishment that the hon. major should have thrown out any insinuations calculated to lead the House into an idea that he had written the pamphlet in question, added, that he considered the present business as too important to admit of unseasonable interruptions. At a proper time, he would readily enter with the hon. gentleman upon a discussion of the subject; but he trusted, that the committee would not suffer an infinitely more momentous investigation to be at all retarded in its necessary course. Major Scott said:-I have already given the reason, why the hon. gentleman could not possibly have written it; and I shall now proceed to state the parts I complain of. The author, in his preface to these "Observations on the Defence of Mr. Hastings," says, that the defence was, by Mr. Hastings's authority, printed, published, and circulated with uncommon rapidity. This, I affirm, to be a gross falsehood; for neither Mr. Hastings, nor any person connected with him, had the smallest concern, either in the printing, publishing, or circulating that Defence. But what follows is of infinitely more consequence. We all know, that a pamphlet was published some time ago, which, though not approved of universally, has been universally read-so much so, that it has gone through seven editions, and I understand Mr. Debrett expects to sell 20,000 copies of it. Amongst others, Mr. Hastings, or some of his friends, have been mentioned as the author; and although the publisher of the pamphlet has declared, that neither Mr. Hastings, nor any person directly or indirectly connected with him, wrote that pamphlet, yet since the declaration was so publicly made, the author of the work, in my hand, has inserted the following passage in his Observations: "He (Mr. Hastings) says Madagee Sindia has written letters in his praise to his most gracious Majesty, and to the Company. Any body else would have said simply to his Majesty. The epithet, most gracious,' is seldom or never used, but in direct addresses, or petitions to the King. The affectation of introducing it in the mention of so unimportant a fact, requires no comment. But wounds, as well as compliments, come from the same quarter. The spirit that flatters can insult. The author, whose pamphlet, as he imagines, is to deliver characters to posterity, and whose education in the school of Mr. Hastings is self-evident, has taken upon him to assist, from what he calls an intimate knowledge of his Majesty's character;" &c. I do not choose to proceed, conceiving it would be highly unbecoming in me to do so: but I affirm, that the man who had the baseness to calumniate Mr. Hastings, and to mention this work as coming from his school, must have done it with a knowledge, that he was publishing a gross and scandalous falsehood to the world; and he must have a heart blacker than ever existed in a human form. The hon. gentleman who spoke so eloquently yesterday, talked of the servile dependents of Mr. Hastings. I hope, Sir, he does not rank me in that number, if such there are. I left England with English blood in my veins, and, I hope, I have brought English blood back again to my native country. The hon. gentleman has, I trust, a better opinion of me, since, upon a very remarkable occasion, he consented to a conference with me, which, if it had taken place, might have prevented that splendid display of eloquence which we heard yesterday. The fact is, Sir, that I was above twelve years in India, before I had the pleasure to be known to Mr. Hastings, except by dining at his table, in common with other officers, of my own standing. The hon. gentleman, in opening the question, took a very wide range; nor do I conceive it can be fairly considered, without a view of the state of affairs in India, and in Europe, as connected with India, in 1781, and for some years preceding. In 1775, the debt of Great Britain was, I believe, about 125 * millions. It continued rapidly increasing e from that unfortunate period; and in 1782, it had increased to the alarming r amount of 230 millions. In the same E period, 100,000 lives were lost, a vast empire in America, Minorca in Europe, several of our West India islands, and our most valuable settlements on the coast of Africa. I believe no history, ancient or modern, can afford an instance of so rapid a decline in the prosperity of a great country. The flames of war, which raged with so much violence in Europe and America, were extended to Hindostan ; for I assert, without a fear of contradiction, that the politics of Great Britain involved us originally in India. An event, which the right hon. gentleman truly foretold very early in the American war, when he said it must, by, its continuation, involve this nation in every quarter of the globe. During the progress of our calamities in Europe and America, I would desire to ask gentlemen, what happened in India? We were there, it is true, involved in wars, and surrounded with difficulties-but how different the conclusion ! Did we lose a foot of territory in India? So far from it, that we had taken, in the course of the war, every French and Dutch settlement on the continent of Hindostan, and were besieging the French garrison of Cuddalore, their only remaining hope, when intelligence of the peace in Europe arrived at Madras. The first account of that important event was conveyed by an express dispatched by me to Mr. Hastings at his own expense. The noble marquis, who deserves the warmest thanks of a grateful country, for ending a calamitous and most expensive war, gave up, and wisely gave up, the con quests of the East India Company in | I alluded before, had the good fortune to India, in order to save the British pos- save this country from total ruin, in sessions in the West Indies. I would January 1783, by restoring to us the ask gentlemen, in what other quarter blessings of peace. If the matter were of the globe could we make cessions to doubtful then, what shall we now proFrance? In none; for except the island nounce? If after five years of peace, this of St. Lucia, all the conquests we made nation can hardly pay the interest of its during the late war, were made in India. public debts, and provide for its various I have sat in the gallery in other days, establishments, how could we have borne and listened with profound attention to an additional load of 20 millions? and such the right hon. gentleman (Mr. Fox), when would have been the consequence of anhe has so strongly and so truly described other year of war. Of the truth of this the calamitous and degraded state this the right hon. gentleman was so sensible, country was reduced to; I have heard that not many months previous to the him attribute those calamities and that peace, he declared in this House, I mean, degradation to the imbecility, and the in- during the Rockingham Administration, dolence of the noble lord who for many that bad as he had conceived this country years was the minister of this country. I to be before he came into office, he found have been informed, that the right hon. it upon examination infinitely worse, and gentleman has sometimes in this House, that no peace could be a bad one for during the late war, expressed his warmest this country. What was the consequence wishes for America. Her cause was the of the restoration of peace? An agree cause of liberty, the cause of Whiggism,ment, between long hostile and contendand of the British constitution. A right hon. gentleman, who first moved this prosecution, has been equally violent upon former occasions against the noble lord, and equally zealous for America. His zeal once carried him so far as even publicly to avow in this House, a correspond ence with Dr. Franklin, then declared by law a rebel to this country, on the exchange of a British general. The noble lord has, upon many occasions, declared that he imputed our calamities to the intemperate violence of Opposition, and to their encouragement of the rebellion in America. But that in a very few years we experienced a melancholy reverse; that from being the first, as well as the freest nation in the world, we, in less than seven years saw our empire dismembered, and the people of England so oppressed and borne down by taxes, that the most economical minister will scarcely be able, in future, to make the income of the state meet its expenditure; that in a very few years these melancholy events did happen, are truths which all parties acknowledge, though they may differ as to the causes to which these misfortunes are to be attributed. What was the event which happened a few short months after these melancholy truths were so universally felt and acknowledged? It was of such a nature, that not all the splendid talents, the wit, the ingenuity, or the humour of the gentleman opposite, will ever be able to efface from the minds of the people of England. The noble marquis, to whom ing parties, to turn out the noble marquis who concluded it, and to seize themselves the government of this country. The right hon. gentleman who had declared, in November 1781, that the noble lord who was then the minister "must hear of his disgraceful and ruinous measures at the tribunal of justice, and expiate them on the public scaffold;" the same right hon. gentleman who then made this public declaration, was joint Secretary of State with the noble lord in March, 1783. With equal indignation, another right hon. gentleman spoke of the noble lord; yet he too, upon that occasion, echoed the humane sentiment of "inimicitiæ placabiles, amicitiæ sempiternè." I hope I am not irregular in the ground I have taken, because I mean strictly to apply these extraordinary and unexpected changes of opinions and measures to the subject before us. I am exceedingly sorry for the occasion of the absence of the noble lord (North). From the declaration of war with France, or rather from the time of the delivery of the French rescript in March 1778, to March 1782, when the noble lord resigned his office, he has avowed publicly, that he supported Mr. Hastings, and he has also avowed the reasons for which he supported him: 1. That it was a season of war, and of great difficulty and danger : 2. That Mr. Hastings possessed vigour and abilities; and, 3. That he enjoyed the confidence of the East India Company. In the Rockingham or succeeding admi |