other alternative than that which he embraced; they met, and he was fhot through the body; he did not imagine that he thould furvive; he gave Mr Haftings his hand, and declared he forgave him-But what was it he forgave him? Why, the infult he had offered him, and the being the caufe, as he then imagined, of his death. He did not renounce the opinions he held of his public conduct; he did not promife to abandon thofe opinions in cafe he furvived; he did not engage to defift from profecuting an enquiry into his conduct, if he lived to come to England, which he had always declared to Mr. Haftings himself he would endeavour to caufe to be inftituted. Mr. Francis was anfwered by Major Scott. After which Mr. Pitt rofe, and faid, that the obfervations he had to make upon the prefent charge lay within fo limited a compafs, as not to require him to take up much of the time of the committee; and in fact, he fhould only call their attention to one particular point, upon which alone he thought they could with any degree of propriety concur with the honourable gentleman in the motion which he had made; nor did he think, that even on that point the houfe would act confiftently in voting the prefent charge, because it was included in another charge, to which the houfe had already ailented.-This circumftance was the fact of Mr. Haftings having received prefents from Kelleram and Cullian Sing, on the fettlement made with the zemindars, farmers, and collectors, in 1781. The house therefore having voted a fpecific article on that head, he fhould by no means vote another merely on the fame ground; and he was perfectly fatisfied that there was no other foundation for a criminal charge against Mr. Haftings in the article which the honourable gentleman had opened, except that which he had now ftated-the accepting of prefents. Still, if it could be made appear that the charge, as it stood, would tend to throw any fresh or neceifary light upon the receipt of the prefents-would eftablithitmore ftrongly in point of fact, or elucidate and prove the guilt of the tranfaction more forcibly-he thould then be ready and willing to give the motion his hearty fupport. As to the other matters contained in the charge, and ftated by the honourable gentleman, he either looked upon them as not criminal, or, if criminal, as not fufficiently prov ed, or capable of being fubftantiated at the bar of the other house. In the course of this debate, Mr. Barwell, the member for St. Ives, who had been an affociate with Mr. Haftings in the government of Bengal, obferved, that a right honourable gentleman having frequently introduced his name with fome infinuation of blame, he could not avoid expreffing an earnest desire, that if there was any charge of delinquency against him, it might be brought forward, and he was ready to meet it in that houfe, or elfewhere. Mr. Burke, who was the perfon alluded to, replied, that he did not mean to bring forward a charge against the honourable member, as his hands were fufficiently full already; but if he was really anxious to be accufed, he would, when at leifure, apply himself to the fubje&t; for if he were compelled to ipeak the truth, he must fay, that he did not think the whole of the gentleman's conduct unex ceptionable ceptionable whilft he was in India. -At length the queftion was put, and the committee divided; ayes 71, noes 55. On the 25th of April Mr. Burke brought up from the fecret committee the articles of impeachment, which being read a first time, were ordered to be printed, and to be taken into confideration on the 9th. of May. Upon that day, on a motion that they fhould be read a fecond time, lord Hood rofe to give his determined negative, and went over the arguments he had urged upon a former occafion. He was followed by Mr. Alderman Wilkes, and Mr. Smith, who were of opinion that many facts, upon which the charges were founded, were unfupported by evidence, others juftifiable by ftate neceffity, others again actually juftified by the approbation of his matters and of the public, others defenfible from the difference of manners and government in that country, and others highly meritorious. The former infifted ftrongly on the filence of the natives of India upon the fubject of the dreadful oppreffions faid to have been practifed amongst them; and attributed the greatest part of what appeared criminal in the conduct of Mr. Haftings, to the craving and avaricious policy of this country, whofe demands had in fome inftances driven Mr. Hattings to the ufe of means not ftri&tly juftifiable. The amount of the charges, he faid, fuppofing the facts true, was this, that Mr Haltings, by oppreffion, by injuftice and corruption, has obtained for the company nine millions and a half fterling He thought that all the acts complained of were wife, politic, and juit. But were he of a contrary opinion, he could not, as an honeft man, lay his hand upon his heart, and vote for the impeachment of Mr. Hattings, while he bafely and infamously benefited by his mitdeeds. And how gentlemen, who condemn these acts fuffer a day to pafs without moving retribution to the fufferers, was to him incomprehenfible. The lord advocate for Scotland (Mr. Ilay Campbell) faid, that confidering the houfe as fitting in the capacity of a grand jury, and con fequently that they ought to be thoroughly perfuaded of the truth of the indictment, fo far as the evidence went, and not to reft satisfied merely with remote probabilities, he could not confcientiously give his vote for the impeachment. He then took a view of the different articles of charge, and pointed out the parts in which he conceived the evidence to be effentially defective. He confidered the neceflities of the company, and the dangerous crifis of their affairs, as grounds of juftification for the ftrong measures purfued by Mr. Haftings, in order to extricate them. The company having actually reaped the benefit of them, and fo far approved of them, as never to have fignified any intention of reftitution, he could not conceive with what propriety Mr. Haftings could be impeached for them He further obferved, that Mr. Haftings had been moft unjustly blamed for various acts of adminiftration, in which he had only concurred with others--that the order of dates, as well as the ftate of the council at different periods, ought to have been more diftinctly attended to in the charges. Mr. Haltings had enjoyed the catting voice in the council only for a very thort time, and even then Mr. [2]4 Barwell Barwell was equally refponfible with him. Afterwards, Mr. Wheler, Sir John Macpherson, Sir Eyre Coote, and Mr. Stables, came gradually into the council. At one period a coalition took place between Mr. Haftings and Mr. Francis. How do the profecutors account for this? -and is Mr. Haftings alone to be made accountable during that period? He concluded with obferving, that in fuggefting what had occurred to him in favour of Mr. Haftings, he had avoided faying any thing upon the topic of his extraordinary fervices in general, being doubtful whether, upon the fuppofition of guilt in any specific article, a felof, as it is called, or balancing of accounts between merits and demerits, would relevantly be admitted at the fame time it was a mode of defence not altogether new. The proceedings in lord Clive's cafe left no room to doubt that he owed his fafety to it; and there was ftill a more illuftrious example of it in hiftory, the cafe of Epaminondas, the Theban general, who, when tried for his life before the tribunal of his country, for having kept the command fourmonths after he should have laid it down, acknowledged the crime, but enumerated the glorious actions which he had performed; and faid he would die with pleasure, if the fole merit of thefe were afcribed to him.-This fpeech procured his acquittal-and whoever reads the hiftory of India, during the late war, will be apt to think that Mr. Haftings may die when he pleafes, with fimilar words in his mouth. Mr Alderman Townshend juftified Mr. Haftings on the ground of state neceflity; and faid, that he deferved the higheft applaufe, for not having ftood upon fo paltry a punctilio as confidering whether a measure was rigidly correct and legal, when the immediate neceffity of the company's affairs, and the falvation of India, were concerned. The making reftitution to the perfons who had been injured would be more like an act of justice, than hunting down an individual, against whom no complaints had been made. Mr. Martin declared himfelf a friend to the impeachment, fince the facts in the feveral charges had been fo fully established. He said, if any gentleman would move, that retribution fhould be made, he would fecond the motion. Lord Mulgrave faid, that as he had always voted againft the queftion, except on the charge relative to prefents, he muft, for the sake of confiftency, vote against the impeachment. Mr. Burgefs produced an addrefs from the officers of the army in India, an army of 70,000 men, all of whom bore teftimony to the important fervices of his adminiftration. The chancellor of the exchequer then rofe, and observed, that he was not a little furprised to find, that after every charge had been fully inveftigated in the committee, gentlemen fhould now object to the natural confequence of the whole, without bringing out any new matter whatever. He reprobated the idea of a fet-off in very strong terms. He acknowledged, that many meafures during the adminiftration of Mr. Haftings, were uncommonly brilliant; and that in these his merits were unquestionable. But he trufted no man, who feriously regarded regarded the honour of the house of commons, would expect that the juftice of the country could admit of any compromife whatever. He was forry his honourable friend, the lord advocate of Scotland, should conceive the honour of the reprefentatives of the British nation not interested in refcuing the British character from that degree of infamy and degradation to which it had been reduced. The accufations which had been preferred against Mr. Haftings were now not only the cause of the houfe, but, in his opinion, involved the honour of every member individually. Nor had he lefs hesitation, from the importance of the fubject, to fay, it affected the government of thewhole empire. It was a question which fhook the bafis of the conftitution, for it was literally a queftion of refponfibility. And here he defired to be understood as by no means agreeing with his honourable friend, in comparing the house of commons to a grand jury. There were certainly points in which that comparifon could not be juftified. It would, if carried up in its full extent, put it out of the power of the commons of Great Britain to carry any bill of impeachment whatever. The house of commons could examine no evidence on oath. All they were therefore accountable for was the conviction of their own minds. On this principle he was prepared to vote for the general queftion. From the weight and importance of the charges, the policy and intereft of the country required that an example fhould be made of the delinquent. The necellity of this he urged, particularly from the difpofition he perceived in the abettors of Mr. Haf tings, to justify him on the principles of expediency and neceffity. But he contended, that they had even failed in fubftantiating that plea, fince no neceffity whatever, in many cafes where that pretext was fet up, had been proved. He even fhewed, by a statement of the facts in evidence, that where neceffity had been most infifted on, profufion and corruption demonftrated that it did not exift. After preffing this on the house with much earneftuefs, he adverted to the articles in general; and faid, he did not by any means adopt them without exception: but that as he agreed with the leading idea of all, except the charges concerning Cheyt Sing, he thought there could be no impropriety in carrying up the articles as they ftood to the houfe of lords; he should, therefore, from a fincere conviction that he was doing his duty to the public, vote decidedly for the queftion. The house then divided on the queftion, whether the report should be now read a fecond time, which was carried in the affirmative, by 175 to 89. After which the first article of impeachment was read and agreed to without a divifion, and the reft deferred till the morrow, when they were read, amended, and agreed to. Mr. Burke then rofe, and moved, "That Warren "Haftings, efq; be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors upon the faid articles." Mr. Sumner, a gentleman who had formerly been in the fervice of the India company, rofe to exprefs his attonithment that a perfon of fuch high character, acknowledged ability, and received integrity, as Mr. Haftings, fhould be the fub ject refiftance after what had paffed, as it appeared founded equally on principles of juftice and humanity. He then moved, "That Mr. Burke, "in the name of the house of commons, and of all the com"mons of Great Britain, do go "to the bar of the house of lords, efquire, late governor general "of Bengal, of high crimes and "misdemeanors, and do acquaint "the lords, that the commons will, "with all convenient speed, exhi "bit articles against him, and make "good the fame." The motion being agreed to; the majority of the houfe immędiately attended Mr. Burke to the bar of the houfe of peers, where Mr. Burke folemnly impeached Mr. Haftings in the form above re cited. ject of an impeachment. He had been bred up in the habit of regarding that gentleman as a model of perfection. He defcribed Mr. Haftings as a man educated with a view to fill a place in private life only, but who had, by unforefeen accidents, been exalted to a rank of great dignity and fingular" and impeach Warren Haftings, power. That, however his conduct, in that dangerous and tempting fituation, might have rendered him the object of a profecution carried on in that houfe, with uncommon virulence (he had almost faid, with unexampled malice) he was regarded by the world in general as a politician poffeffed of more than ordinary wildom, and as a statesman eminent for his activity and exertion. The French, he faid, to whom Mr. Haftings had certainly, in his public conduct, evinced no partiality, idolized him, and extolled his actions as more than human. Indeed there was no place in any quarter of the globe that did not join in his praise, and speak of him with rapture, excepting only that houfe, where he had been debafed by joking phrafes, run down by ribaldry, and loaded with invective, fit only to be applied to the moft atrocious criminal after conviction, and by no means worthy to be heard in a British fenate, engaged in an inquiry, whether there was matter of charge or not, against a gentleman, who had lately stood in a fituation, from its eminence alone entitled to respect and veneration. The queftion was then put, and carried without further debate; after which, Mr. Frederick Montagu rofe, and faid, that the motion he had now to make could not, he conceived, meet with any On the eleventh, Mr. Burke reported to the house, that he had been at the bar of the house of lords, and had impeached Warren Haftings, in obedience to their com mands. He then propofed that Meffrs. Wallis and Troward should be retained to act as folicitors for the impeachment on the part of the houfe.-On the twenty-firft, Mr. Burke obferved to the houfe, that it would be neceifary, before the feffions ended, that the house fhould take fome ftep for binding Mr. Haftings to be forthcoming to anfwer the articles of impeachment which had been preferred against him. He therefore moved, “That "Warren Haftings, efquire, be taken "into the cuftody of the ferjeant at "arms of that house." This motion was oppofed by Mr. Nicholls. He obferved, that upon recurring to the journals in fearch of precedents, he found there were three |