those of an inferior description attended his embar- that was raised, and the efforts which had been made CHAP. LXI. 1781. he might have to encounter, he employed a portion of He writes a his leisure in composing a statement of some of his narrative. later transactions, which was afterward committed to the press*. pressed in În Parliament, his conduct had so long been the Opinions exsubject of severe animadversion, that he could not be Parliament. uninformed of the spirit which actuated a considerable portion of the members. The reports of the committees have already been mentioned; and it is only necessary to add, that every opportunity of heaping censure on him had long been seized with the utmost eagerness. For example; although Mr. Fox, when he introduced his India bills, strongly deprecated such discussions†, several members of his party launched their censures against the Governor-general, and pursued them as if the fate of the proposed statute depended entirely on his character. At the India House, the opinions of the Court of Proprietors had been always, By the Proprithose of the Court of Directors generally, favourable to Mr. Hastings. From the time of Mr. Dundas's motion for his removal‡, until the introduction of Mr. Fox's bill, the Courts had expressed approbation; and, on the last occasion, resolutions were moved, declaring 7th Nov. 1783. those opinions, in the strongest terms, to be the sentiments of the Proprietors, and requesting the Governorgeneral not to resign. The Court was very full, comprising several high and illustrious characters; and It appeared early in 1786, and is said, by Mr Gleig, vol. iii. p. 317, to have been published through the dishonesty of a mercenary stationer. + See Chapter 51. 28th May, 1782 etors and Directors. CHAP. 1784. 30th July. Mr. Burke's motion re Ali Khan. the resolutions were carried with only one dissentient voice*. Mr. Burke made the first direct Parliamentary attack on the retiring Governor, moving for copies of all letters, instructions, or minutes, relative to the seispecting Almas zure and putting to death of a native of India, named Almas Ali Khan. His speech was a specimen of the style of invective which, so long afterward, resounded in Parliament. "The situation and property of the "unfortunate Almas had attracted the attention, stimu"lated the avarice, and brought down the vengeance "of the British on his head. The crime of having "money, like the sin against the Holy Ghost in "Christian theology, in Indian politics, could never "be forgiven. It seemed impossible, in this instance, "to plunder without murder. Orders had been sent "to arrest Almas; but this gentleman-like business "must be done in the most gentleman-like manner. "The chief must be taken, and he must also be 'put "to death;' but all this must be so contrived as to imply no treachery.' Here was honour of a very singular and nice description-plunder, peculation, "and even assassination, without treachery! This, "however, was only one instance of many. Almost every district in India daily exhibited marks or spe"cimens of the same inhumanity, and disclosed scenes "of misery and degradation. Nor did the Company gain advantage from these horrible iniquities. The "revenues decreased in proportion as the violence and "force, employed in collecting them, augmented. This "country, before the dirty and miserable interference of English politics, was plentiful, so well cultivated, and "so rich, as to deserve the name of the Eden of the East. "There was nothing like its fertility and luxuriance "where we exist. It exhibited to Europeans a new 66 66 66 66 66 spectacle of Nature, putting forth all her strength. "But where now was this beautiful paradise? It was "no where to be found. This delightful spot, the "joint effect of nature and art, the united work of * Proceedings at a General Court of Proprietors, &c. Debrett 1783. 66 66 The country was extir CHAP. God and man, was no more. pated. Haman Dowlah (the well-known appellation, "Mr. Hastings in India) had reduced the whole to a "waste, howling desert, where no human creature "could exist." LXI. 1784. In the course of this speech Mr. Burke challenged Major Scott. those whom he termed the Indian bench, superior to the treasury bench, the abettors of these crimes, to contradict any of his assertions; and, as he named Major Scott, the avowed agent of Mr. Hastings, as one of that description, that member, after shortly contradicting some statements and explaining others, seconded Mr. Burke's motion, which, after another vehement speech from the mover, was granted. Other Papers papers were accorded with equal facility; but when granted. the eloquent mover required an account of the produce of jewels and other effects of the mother and grandmother of the Soubah of Oude, Mr. Pitt found it Others necessary to interpose, observing that the House could refused. not know as a fact that any jewels or effects had been obtained from these princesses; there would be no end if papers were to be ordered without the establishment of any parliamentary ground. Mr. Burke made a vehement reply, fraught with bitter reproaches against some young members, who appeared to laugh at some passages in his speech; but the House, adopting Mr. Pitt's motion, passed to the order of the day. 1785. Mr. Francis. 24th. In the ensuing session, Mr. Francis moved for papers from the India House, relative to salaries, Feb. 16th. emoluments, and revenues in India, which, with some moved for by slight exceptions, were granted; but, on a subsequent day, when he asked for a letter written by Mr. Hastings to the East India Company, his motion was lost on a division*. The debates on these occasions are utterly void of interest; they abound in acrimonious personalities from members to each other; but the accusers of Mr. Hastings did not, on these occasions, rage against him with their former unmitigated violence. * 41 to 16. CHAP. 1786. Feb. 17th. Mr. Burke moves for papers preparatory to his charges against Mr Hastings. Another year elapsed before charges were in a formal manner moved; but, from that time, the task proceeded without intermission. Mr. Burke then assumed the position of accuser; and, having caused resolutions formerly passed* to be read as the ground of his proceeding, introduced to the House what he justly termed the solemn and important business of the day. He traced, in a clear and perspicuous manner, the rise of our power in India, the settlement effected by Lord Clive; the enormous abuses which, in consequence of the facility afforded to the sudden acquisition of wealth, were piled on each other, until every spot of British territory in India became a shocking theatre of that variety of crimes to which the lust of avarice and ambition so frequently impels the worthless part of human kind. Such were the circumstances when Mr. Hastings was removed from Madras to Bengal; but still the state of affairs required scrutiny; and he mentioned the operations of the different committees, until the reports were delivered which occasioned the resolutions he had caused to be read. He reflected with great severity on Mr. Dundas, for having become so cold and indifferent on a subject in which he had before shewn so much spirit and eagerness; and complained bitterly of an expression used by Lord Thurlow, when he compared the reports to mere fables, and placed their authority no higher than that of the romance of Robinson Crusoe. In defiance of either the keen severity of raillery, at once unmerited and groundless, or the imposing plausibility of an insidious style of argument, he should rest his own particular accusation against Mr. Hastings as a delinquent of the first magnitude, upon the united authority of the heavy charges arising out of the reports, and of the string of resolutions remaining on the Journals. Three modes of proceeding presented themselves : a criminal information to be filed in the Court of King's Bench by the Attorney-general, a bill of pains In May, 1782. and penalties, and a parliamentary impeachment. From the first he was averse, because the Attorneygeneral* did not discover any zealous inclination to support the measure; nor did he conceive that a trial by jury was, of all others, the most unexceptionable and best devised for obtaining ample justice against an offender so great and elevated; nor could a prosecution so important, and necessarily of such long duration, be carried on in the Court of King's Bench, without overwhelming all other causes. A bill of pains and penalties would press, with the severity of injustice, on the party prosecuted, and tarnish the character and dignity of the House; as its members would thus present themselves at one moment as accusers, and at another as judges; where the accused must state the grounds of his defence, and witnesses produced, who could not be examined on oath, but who must yet, before another assembly, be subjected to that test. He therefore gave the preference to an impeachment, but would not pursue the accustomed course of first moving the impeachment and then for a committee, who should discover and arrange the articles: he would only move for papers, from the contents of which he would endeavour to collect the facts into their necessary points of view; and when these should, in the contemplation of the House, appear to be charges of an atrocious nature, he would propose an impeachment. In conclusion, he moved for all correspondence since January, 1782, between Mr. Hastings and the Court of Directors, as well before as since his return, relative to presents and other money privately received by him. Mr. Windham seconded the motion. CHAP. LXI. 1786. Mr. Dundas jocularly observed, that, from some Mr. Dundas, passages in the mover's specch, he was led to congratulate himself that he was not the person to be impeached. He denied that he had ever dropped a hint from which it could be inferred that he would be an accuser of Mr. Hastings; nor did the resolutions |
