May 20.

No farther notice was taken of this business till the 20th of May; but, various reports having been industriously spread out of doors, that exorbitant fees were given to the counsel of the prosecution; that expensive entertainments were provided for the managers at the public expence; and others of the like nature, Mr. Burgess was this day called upon by the managers to proceed in the inquiry he had instituted. He accordingly rose and observed, that the account produced was still too general for the purpose of affording the information he expected; and he should therefore move, "That the solicitors should give in an account, stating specifically to whom, and on what account, the several sums expended had been paid." He was seconded by Sir William Dolben.— Mr. Fox said, that the managers were undoubtedly responsible for the services ordered, but not for the manner in which those services were performed. It lay with the treasury te examine, check, and control, the expenditure of the money issued to defray the charges incurred by the prosecution.

Mr. BURKE declared, that as far as regarded himself, he had not the smallest objection to every minute item of the charges incurred by the prosecution being made as public as possible, but there were grounds of argument extremely forcible and extremely obvious, that would prove the present motion to be in the highest degree improper and unwise. The House had solemnly determined, that Mr. Hastings should be impeached, they had appointed a committee of managers, and armed them with a variety of powers, above all, directing them to act as a secret committee, and now in the progress of that very proceeding which they were to conduct in the manner that, upon secret consultation, should appear to them most advisable, was the House about to demand a public disclosure of all the private grounds of their conduct. Such a measure, he would venture to say, was unprecedented, and in no great public prosecution had such a measure ever been attempted

or dreamt of. With regard to the charges already incurred, Mr. Burke said, his private opinion was that the cause had been starved. So far from any unnecessary expence having been gone into, he was persuaded much use might have resulted from still greater expences, had the committee thought the circumstances that characterised the prosecution such as would have rendered it prudent in them to have incurred greater expences. He reminded gentlemen of the particular constitution, temper, and sentiments of the House in regard to the prosecution. A large and indeed a most decided and respectable majority of the House had voted the impeachment, and voted a committee of managers with great powers, but not greater than were absolutely necessary to render the prosecution effectual. But there was notoriously a considerable Indian party in that House, friends of Mr. Hastings, and many of them acting upon motives of personal interest, who had shewn themselves adverse to the prosecution. He was far from meaning to insinuate that they might not have been adverse to the prosecution from motives perfectly honourable, but the fact was as he had stated it. There was another set of gentlemen who had voted against the prosecution on principle, and because they thought such a prosecution, under all the circumstances, ought not to have taken place. This latter description of gentlemen certainly were to be respected. But such being the known divisions of the House, it behoved the managers to act with extreme caution, and to take care so to conduct themselves as not to give just cause of offence, or of solid objection, to either of the parties alluded to. This had been their rule, and had it not rigidly been adhered to, much larger expences might have been incurred, and incurred usefully to the prosecution. Secret services, for instance, might have made a large head of expence, and if gentlemen gave themselves time for reflection, they would see that in a prosecution of the nature of that in question, there might be much occasion for secret services. Mr. Burke animadverted on Sir William Dolben's having ventured to second a motion,

with the true grounds of which he could not possibly be acquainted. The charge incurred was enormous or inconsiderable, in proportion to the greatness or littleness of the services performed. The honourable baronet could not know what the size of those services were. They only who had directed them, and saw the degree of effect they had operated, could alone judge of their importance. The committee having the business in their hands, knew them to be great, and knew the charges incurred to be proportionably trifling and inconsiderable. The committee were responsible for those services, or rather he was responsible, as the leading member of that committee, and he meant not in the smallest degree to shrink from his responsibility, or shelter himself behind the committee, for conduct undoubtedly his own, and for which he was and ought to be peculiarly responsible. The honourable baronet had said he seconded the motion, because it was not moved with a view to censure of the past, but of caution for the future. If it was necessary to give caution for the future, there must have arisen some occasion for that caution, which implied, that the committee of managers had acted in a manner in which they ought not to have acted. For his part, Mr. Burke said, he rejected the profered caution. He would take no more caution than he had done. He acted to the best of his judgment, and he was conscious that he was responsible for his conduct.

The House divided: Yeas 60: Noes 19. withdrew without dividing.

The managers

June 6.

THE papers being accordingly laid upon the table, Mr. Bur. gess was again called upon, on the 30th of May, to state his objections to the House, if any still remained upon his mind. He answered, that in his opinion, he had sufficiently done his duty in calling for the papers. They were now before the

form his sentiments upon the subject. What his doubts were, he imagined, must, suggest themselves to every gentleman who read the accounts, and therefore he left to persons who had more weight and authority in that House than he had, to take the matter up; but if no other person should, and the House should call upon him to bring the subject forward, he was ready to obey their commands. Upon this it was observed, that the way in which the matter had been treated, was a little extraordinary. The honourable gentleman had expressed doubts upon one of the heads of the general account, but had alleged he could not say whether those doubts were well founded or not, before he saw a more particular statement of the items of the accounts; that particular statement had been presented some days, and the honourable gentleman had now declared, he still entertained his doubts, but that he left it to other gentlemen to move the discussion. The honourable gentleman should either act upon his doubts, or get some other gentleman to take his doubts up for him, and act upon them. From what had already passed in that House upon the subject, the matter ought not to drop without a farther investigation. Mr. Burgess then gave notice, that he should make a motion on the subject the Friday following. Upon that day he stated to the House the following doubts which he entertained upon the subject; a doubt whether the House had authorized the managers to employ counsel; a doubt whether there was any precedent for their employing counsel; and, in case the House had not authorized them to employ counsel, and that there was no precedent for it, a doubt whether there was any peculiar circumstance of difficulty, in the nature of the present prosecution, that made the assistance of counsel necessary? After which he adverted to some inaccuracies in the account itself, and concluded with moving, "That the solicitors should from time to time present an account of the expences incurred at the bar of the House."

Mr. BURKE said, that he rose neither to second nor to resist the motion. Before he seconded, he must approve a motion; before he opposed it, he must feel a strong reason for meeting it with his negative. In the present case he felt no powerful propensity either way. He could not, however, avoid offering his warmest congratulations to the

honourable gentleman; on his having chosen that glorious day, after the triumph of the morning, to bring forward a business of such an important nature! It was the honourable gentleman's choice of filling up the happy interval between their adjournment from Westminster-hall and the rising of the House, with calling them to the examination of the items of a solicitor's bill, which alone was fit to follow his first onset within those walls, when he had stood up, and boldly ventured for a long time, singly and unseconded, to call for the attention of the House, after every other member had been struck dumb with astonishment and admiration at the wonderful eloquence of his honourable friend (Mr. Sheridan), who had that day again surprised the thousands who hung with rapture on his accents, by such a display of talents as were unparralleled in the annals of oratory, and as did the highest honour to himself, to that House, and to his country. For his part, Mr. Burke added, his mind was not sufficiently let down from the heighth of exaltation to which it had been raised: it required a degree of bending, of wetting and of relaxation, to sink his thoughts to the level of such an inquiry as that to which the honourable gentleman had called their attention. After such a sublime and glorious feast as the morning had afforded, the honourable gentleman's curious speculation on minute particulars convinced him that Providence had intended that man should not be proud, but that ecstacy of the mind should be checked and cooled by some sudden concomitant of mortification and disgrace, so that, under any circumstances, it should be impossible for a human being to escape long from having some proof of natural infirmity thrust before his sight. He again congratulated the honourable gentleman, therefore, on his choice of a day, declaring that if ever there was a day made to dignify the nation, made to dignify human nature itself, it was that very day. Of all the various species of oratory, of every kind of eloquence that had been heard, either in ancient or in modern times; whatever the acuteness of the bar, the