UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 THE 
 
 CONDUCT 
 
 O F 
 
 HIS MAJESTY'S 
 LATE MINISTERS 
 
 CONSIDERED, 
 
 THE EAST-INDIA COMPANY 
 
 MR. HASTINGS. 
 
 MAJOR JOHN .SCOTT. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for J . DEBRETT, oppofite Burlington Houfe, 
 Piccadilly. M,DCC,LXXXIV.
 
 S -y a , c 
 
 TO THE 
 
 COURT OF PROPRIETORS 
 
 o r 
 EAST-INDIA STOCK, 
 
 WHO BY THEIR SPIRITED, AND 
 HONOURABLE SUPPORT OF THEIR SERVANT, 
 
 MR. HASTINGS, 
 
 AGAINST THE EFFORTS OF NUMEROUS, 
 AND POWERFUL ENEMIES, 
 
 HAVE PRESERVED AN EMPIRE TO GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
 BY CONTINUING HIM IN THE 
 
 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, 
 
 UNTIL PEACE AND TRANOJHLITY ARE COMPLETELY 
 RESTORED TO EVERY PART OF IT, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING SHEETS ARE DEDICATED WITH 
 THE SINCEREST RESPECT, 
 
 BY THEIR 
 
 MUCH OBLIGED AND 
 
 FAITHFUL HUMBLE SERVANT, 
 
 JOHN SCOTT. 
 
 S^ueen~Squarf, 
 
 loth Sept. 1784. 
 
 ,
 
 T H 
 
 CONDUCT, &e. 
 
 A HE Legiflature has at length pan*ed into a 
 law, a bill for the better management of the 
 affairs of the Eaft-India Company. During its 
 progrefs through the Houfe of CommonSj the 
 affairs of India have undergone a very full dif- 
 cuffion, and, perhaps, this intricate fubjeft is 
 now much better underftood by the public at 
 large, than at any former period. The charac- 
 ter and conduct of Mr. Haflings Jias been a 
 principal topic in every debate upon India affairs 
 during the late fefllon. Lord North very 
 juftly obferved, that Mr. Haftings had been 
 able to refill every endeavour his Lordihip made 
 B to
 
 to remove him : I may add, that his public 
 character bore him up againft an unjuft, and 
 abfurd refolution of the late Houfe of Com- 
 mons. To fuppofe that money could have 
 procured that honourable and effectual fupport 
 which Mr. Haftings has received, even if he 
 were rich enough, and mean enough to refort 
 to bribery, is fo exceedingly ridiculous, that 
 the men who infmuate the charge, do not, I 
 am fure, ferioufly believe it. The fact is, that 
 the people of England who fupported Mr. Pitt, 
 this year, againft the madnefs and folly of the 
 
 late Houfe of Commons, fupported Mr. Haf- 
 
 - 
 tings in 1782 againft the fame body; with this 
 
 difference however, that when the refolution 
 for the recall of Mr. Haftings was carried, 
 Lord Rockingham was the Minifter, and his 
 party had great credit in the nation : of courfe 
 to refift them was hazardous, though rendered 
 in fome meafure lefs fo, from their own pre- 
 fumption ; but when they joined Lord North, 
 they forfeited the confidence of the people, 
 and confequently their attack upon Mr. Pitt, 
 excited the popular indignation in a much 
 greater degree than their injuftice to Mr. Haf- 
 tings could do. 
 
 So
 
 C 3 3 
 
 So many mifreprefentations have gone abroad, 
 though their feafon for doing mifchief is at an 
 end, that it will be but an act of juftice due 
 to His Majefty's prefent Minifters, the Eaft- 
 india Company, and Mr. Haftings, to prove, 
 there has been no corrupt agreement between 
 them; and that if they have appeared to act 
 in concert, it was merel y becaufe the late 
 Miniftry, at one and the fame time, attacked 
 the Conftitution, the Company, and the well- 
 earned fame of the prefent Governor General 
 of Bengal. 
 
 Mr. Haftings certainly owes his fituation to 
 the moft independent body of men in Eng- 
 land, I mean the Proprietors of Raft-India 
 flock, not, as I have heard it afierted, to a fevv 
 men, who, for political purpofes, have pur- 
 chafed ftock, and who compofe but~dne-fix- 
 teenth of the whole body, even if we fuppofe 
 what is not true, that every gentleman who 
 has ferved abroad and becomes a proprietor, 
 does fo for political purpofes ; but from a 
 very great majority of refpectable and inde- 
 pendent men, who think they owe Mr. Haf- 
 tings fupport in return for long, and faithful 
 fervice, in difficult and arduous fituations. 
 B 2 That
 
 [ 4 3 
 
 That their confidence in him is ill placed, his 
 enemies have long and vainly attempted to 
 eftablifti; that he merits their eftecm, I (hall 
 endeavour to prove as I proceed. 
 
 Mr. Haft ings has ferved the Company above 
 four and thirty years. Immediately after the re- 
 capture of Calcutta, he was confidentially em- 
 ployed by Lord Clive, and, I believe, the only 
 perfon about him who did not acquire fome for- 
 tune. He foon after fucceeded Mr. Scrafton, 
 as Refident at the Durbar of Meer Jaffier, the 
 moft advantageous office in the Company's fer- 
 vice, where he remained until he became a 
 \ member of the adminiftration in 1761. In 
 1765, he quitted Bengal with a fortune fo 
 exceedingly moderate, that though he neither 
 gambled, nor purchafed eftates, nor boroughs, 
 nor was in any fhape of an expend ve turn, 
 he was obliged to apply to the Court of Di- 
 rectors for permiflion to return to India at the 
 end of three years. I appeal to gentlemen 
 who have fome knowkdge of human nature, 
 to determine whether it is probable that Mr. 
 Haftings, who :n the prime of lire fhewed 
 fo great a contempt for money, fhould go 
 to fuch extraordinary lengths to obtain it 
 
 (as
 
 I 5 ] 
 
 (as his enemies have infmuated) at the age 
 of fifty-two. It will be in the recollection 
 of many, with what fcandalous and indecent 
 induftfy that libel, entitled, The Eleventh Re- 
 port of the Selec~b| Committee, was circulated; 
 that it was inclofed under a blank cover to 
 feveral members of the Houfe of Lords ; and 
 that the charges contained in it were artfully 
 brought forward in fuch a manner, as to pre- 
 clude every poflibility of refutation, becaufc 
 they were declared " to be no charges, though, 
 " they might hereafter furnifh matter for 
 " charge." I fnall juftadd in this place, what 
 Mr. Burke declared to me in the month of 
 May, 1782, that there was a direct charge of 
 corruption againfl Mr. Haftings. I was then, 
 and I am ftill, as ready to meet it as I was 
 to inveftigate the cafe of Almas Alhi Cawn, 
 or the Begums of Oude, from a convic- 
 tion, that the more Mr. Haftings's conduct 
 is fcrutinized, the brighter it will appear. I 
 fhall not fay more on this fubjeft, than to de- 
 fire that fome one perfon will produce the 
 charge of his corruption in office, and I pledge 
 myfelf to refute it. To the nonfenfe which 
 has been circulated fo ineiBcaciouily of large 
 
 fums
 
 fums of money having been expended by me 
 to preferve him in the government of Bengal, 
 and to procure an influence in the prefenc 
 Parliament, I will merely obferve, that I am 
 ready, publicly to produce an account of 
 every milling that I have expended for Mr. 
 Mailings or myfelf, fmce my arrival in Eng- 
 land ; and the world will then be convinced, 
 if farther conviction is neceflary, of the grofs 
 falfehood of fuch aflertions. * 
 
 In the progrefs of the India bill through the 
 Houfe of Commons, fomething has been faid 
 of the conduct of His Majefty's late Minifters 
 towards Mr. Haftings. Lord North, with in- 
 finite wit and good humour, contrived to con- 
 found dates, circumflances, and proper names, 
 
 * An anonymous writer pledged hirnfelf to prove, that J. 
 had given one thoufand pounds in one year to the editor of 
 a newfpaper ; but when I publicly denied this faft, and called 
 for the proofs, the writer was no more heard of. Insinuations 
 of the fame kind have lately been thrown out in the Morning 
 Herald. It fo happens, that the letters of Detector, a Citi- 
 zen, and an Independent Proprietor, were originally publifh- 
 ed in that paper ; and if I paid more than the market price 
 for their infertion I have done it ignorantly ; however, I en- 
 tertain no doubts upon the fubjer : I dare fay I was fairly 
 treated ; and 1 do allure the editor of that paper, and the 
 public, that I have paid at leaft four times as much to him as 
 I have done to aU the newfpapers in London put together. 
 
 in
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
 in fuch a manner, as to arnufe, if he did not 
 inform the Houfe. Mr. Fox too, by talking 
 in general terms of difobedience of orders, 
 fervants being mailers, and many more to- 
 pics drawn from the Reports of the Select 
 Committee, drew their attention from the 
 fads which I humbly attempted to eftab- 
 lifh j but I deny that either Lord North, or 
 Mr. Fox, or Mr. Francis, were able to dif- 
 prove a fmgle afiertion that I have made. 
 With refpect to the latter gentleman, his pre- 
 dictions have fo uniformly been contradicted 
 by the events, that I imagine the public will 
 not place much confidence in his melancholy 
 forebodings hereafter. 
 
 I have afierted that the war with the Ma- 
 rattas, and every misfortune we have fuffered 
 in India, originated in the American war, and 
 in the meafures adopted in England. Mr. 
 Fox made a fimilar obfervation in 1776. If 
 the coalition had not taken place, I am fure 
 he would prove it to be true. In the follow- 
 ing detail of facts, Ihould I miftate any cir- 
 cumftances, or draw falfe conclufions from 
 them, I (hall be expofed as I deferve. 
 
 Mr.
 
 C 3 3 
 
 Mr. Haftlngs fucceeded to the government 
 of Bengal in the month of April 1772, by the 
 appointment of the Court of Directors. At 
 this time the Company had reafon to lament the 
 very flattering account which Lord Clive had 
 given them of the acquifition of Bengal. His 
 
 / Lordftv.p had ftaced the revenues too high, and 
 the expences of government too low. By pay- 
 ing annually four hundred thoufand pounds to 
 the State, dividing twelve per cent, upon the 
 capital, and receiving bills from Bengal to a 
 very large amount, in a feafon of profound 
 peace, they were reduced to the neceffity of ap- 
 plying to Parliament for relief, and Lord 
 North feized the opportunity of afluming the 
 
 A management of the Company's affairs. The 
 injuftice of this act is fully expofed in that me- 
 morable proteft, which the Dukes of Portland, 
 and Richmond, Lords Rockingham, Fitzwil- 
 A^ liam, &c. have tranfmitted to pofterity. The 
 impolicy we have feverely felt. By the act of 
 1773, General Clavering, Colonel Monfon, and 
 Mr. Francis, were appointed a majority of the 
 Supreme Council of India. Mr. Haftings con- 
 tinued Governor of Bengal, under the Directors 
 
 ap-
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
 appointment, from April 1772 to October 
 1774, a period of thirty months. In this time 
 he had introduced order, regularity, and ceco- 
 nomy, into the government of Bengal, and he 
 had provided funds for paying off the public 
 debts which exifted at the time of his arrival. 
 The political meafures of his government were, 
 the withholding the tribute from the Mogul 
 after he had withdrawn himfelf from our pro- 
 tection, and concluding a very advantageous 
 treaty with Sujah Dowlah, by which a part of 
 that treafure which had been fo abfurdly ex- 
 ported from Bengal was brought into it again. 
 It was at this period that the Rohilla war was 
 undertaken. Mr. Burke and Mr. Francis have 
 not fcrupled to attribute this war folely to Mr. 
 Haftings; and they have afierted, that it was 
 undertaken without a fhadow of juftice j that 
 we exterminated a nation merely to acquire for- 
 ty lacks of rupees. How gentlemen, who are 
 at all acquainted with the hiftory of India, can 
 venture to hazard fuch aflcrtions, is to me in- 
 conceivable ; for the fafls are diredly the re- 
 verfe, as a plain relation of them will prove. 
 
 In the year 1772, Sujah Dowlah and the Ro- 
 
 hillas concluded a treaty, to which Sir Robert 
 
 C Barker,
 
 [ 3 
 
 Barker, on the part of the Englifh, was the 
 guarantee. The article which gave rife to tht* 
 war was this: That if Sujah Dowlah and the 
 Englifti forces would afiift the Rohillas, in ex- 
 pelling the Marattas from the Rohilcund, the 
 Rohillas engaged to pay forty lacks of rupees 
 to Sujah Dowlah. The engagement on Out 
 part was faithfully performed : but on a fufpi- 
 cion that the Rohillai would evade theirs, Sir 
 Robert Barker, propofed to the Governor and 
 Council to put Sujah Dowlah in pofleffion of 
 their country on certain conditions, though the 
 Board declined the plan at that time. In three 
 ftveral letters, dated in March and April 1773, 
 Sir Robert Barker, calls the Rohillas a faith- 
 Itfe and treacher us race ; fays, their non-com- 
 pliance with their engagements is notorious, 
 and the only way to compel them is to act upfth 
 their interefts, or their fears. With thefe au- 
 thentic documents, publifhed as they are in the 
 Fifth Report of the Secret Committee, how 
 any man can fay the Rohilla war was the war 
 of Mr. Haftings, or that we attacked the Ro- 
 hiilas without a pretence of quarrel, and yet 
 ex;icd to prefrrve the fmalleft degree of credit 
 with impartial men, is beyond my comprehen- 
 
 fion.
 
 [ 'I 
 
 fion. The Rohilla war was concluded on the 
 6th of October, 1774. General Clavering, 
 Colonel Monfon, and Mr. Francis, arrived in 
 Calcutta the i8th, and aflumed the government 
 the next day. To them were added Mr. Haf- 
 tingsand Mr. Harwell, becaufe, as Lord Lough- 
 borough, and Lord North have informed us, it 
 was thought necefiary that two gentlemen of 
 local knowledge mould be joined with thofe 
 who went from England to. a fervice fo perfectly 
 new to them. 
 
 J do not mean to enter now into the particu- 
 lar fubjects of difpute between the majority and 
 minority of the Supreme Council. The firft 
 (hip that failed from Bengal carried a long letter 
 written by Mr. Francis, and figned by the ma- 
 jority, in which every political act originating 
 with Mr. Haftings was condemned : but before 
 this letter arrived in England, the Directors 
 had tranfmitred to Bengal their approbation of 
 all Mr. Haftings's proceedings, the Rohilla war 
 excepted -, and I fcarcely think their fentiments 
 on this fubject can be called a cenfure. They 
 fay, " Notwithftanding the pecuniary advan- 
 " tages which the Company have gained, we 
 '* are exceedingly concerned to find that our 
 C a arms
 
 f< arms have been employed in the conqueft of 
 " the Rohillas - t though we muft confefs, the 
 " conduct of their chiefs, in refujing to fulfil 
 " their Jolemn Jlipulations, Jeems to have drawn 
 " upon them the calamities they bavejuffered" 
 
 Thefe were the fent ments of the Court of 
 Directors upon the Rohilla war j and here the 
 fubjeft would have dropped, if Lord North 
 had not determined to remove Mr. Haftings, 
 and if a very improper degree of influence had 
 not been employed at the India Houfe to effect 
 his removal. The Rohilla war was again brought 
 forward, and moft groffly mifreprefented. A 
 majority of one voice in the Court of Directors 
 determined, on the 8th of May, 1776, that 
 Mr. Haftings mould be removed. Every pof- 
 fible exertion was made fry Adminiftration to 
 prevent the Proprietors from interfering with 
 effc6t in fupport of Mr. Haftings. Every clerk 
 in the public offices ; every perfon pofleffing 
 flock, who could be influenced by Government, 
 was applied to. The intereft of Lord North 
 and the Earl of Sandwich was very powerfuj 
 then in Leadenhall-ftreet, and it was exerted 
 to the utmoft. 
 
 I admire
 
 [ .13 3 
 
 I admire the ingenuity of the Ninth Report. 
 Itcomains, alfo, Come ftriking truths. To the 
 following I willingly affect, that after Lord 
 North's Regulating Bill pafled, " thofe who 
 " were engaged in contracts with the Treafu- 
 " ry, Admiralty, and Ordnance, together with 
 <c the clerks in the public offices, found means 
 " of fecuring qualfications j" and it is fair to 
 conclude, that they voted with the Minifter: 
 but notwithftanding all the efforts of Adminif- 
 tration, and the induftry of their dependants, 
 Mr. Hafhings obtained a complete triumph 
 through the honourable and virtuous afliftance 
 of the late Marquis of Rockingham, and every 
 independent man in England poflefling India 
 flock. At the time Lord North carried on the 
 American war by a majority in Parliament of 
 above four to one, he was defeated at the India 
 Houfe by a majority of 106 in 648, who bal- 
 lotted on the important queftion for the removal 
 of Mr. Haftings. 
 
 Lord North did not renew his endeavours 
 for his difmiffion. His Lordfhip knows the 
 fecret of the refignation I prefume. I have 
 related as far as Mr. Haftings is informed, in 
 a former Letter to Mr. Burke, and till the 
 
 Secret
 
 [ -4 3 
 
 Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, 
 or Lord North, mall comply with the earned 
 requeft of Mr. Haftings, and produce thofe 
 powers which were faid to be ample and fuffi- 
 cient to authorize them in the acceptance of his 
 refignation, the matter muft reft at it is. 
 
 From the moment intelligence arrived in 
 England of the death of Sir John Clavering, 
 every idea of removing Mr. Hatlings was given 
 up ; and however earneftly Lord North might 
 have laboured to effect it in 1776, he himfelf 
 propofed in 1779, 80, and Si, that he mould 
 be continued the Governor General of Bengal 
 by an act of the Legiflature ; and certainly fup- 
 ported him during thefe years, though with full 
 knowledge of every ftep he was taking relative 
 to the Maratta war, as well as of the motives 
 by which he was actuated. I am not at all ap- 
 prehenfive of being contradicted, when I fay, 
 that His Majefty's Minifters and the Court of 
 Directors approved of the Governor General's 
 conduct, and that full and complete informa- 
 tion was tranfmitted to them in the Minutes of 
 Mr. Haftings and Mr. Francis, the former in 
 defence of his meafures, the latter in reproba- 
 tion of them. 
 
 When
 
 C '5 3 
 
 When the firft intelligence of the invafion of 
 the Carnatic was received in England, a Secret 
 Committee was appointed to enquire into the 
 caufe of that invafion ; and a few months prior 
 to this, a Select Committee had been inftituted 
 to confider the ftate of the judicature in Ben- 
 gal. The objects of enquiry were fo totally 
 different, and the reports and proceedings of 
 thefe Committees were fo totally different, that 
 I muft defire to confider them feparately ; for 
 though I entirely diffent from the refolutions 
 brought forward by the Secret Committee, and 
 am not afraid of afferting that feveral of them 
 are unfounded, yet the Fifth and Sixth Reports 
 are fairly and impartially drawn ; nor are any 
 papers withheld, which tend to elucidate the 
 fubject-matter of the Reports. But the Select 
 Committee, from the day they met in the fe- 
 cond fcfllon of the laft Parliament to the day 
 of its diflblution, appear to me to have had for 
 their fole object the removal of Mr. Haftings 
 and all his Council j and to effect this, they had 
 recourfe to meafures the mod unfair and un- 
 warrantable, as I have proved, and am ready 
 at any time to prove again, to the fatisfaction 
 of any impartial man. ^r. Fox likes a fyf- 
 
 tematic
 
 [16 ] 
 
 tematic oppofition he fays ; and the Select 
 Committee appears to have a&ed upon fyftem : 
 the world will judge whether it was a juft one 
 or not. 
 
 Lord North's adminiftration ended March 
 1782. It will be in the recolle&ion of every 
 gentleman, with what a degree of popularity the 
 new Miniftry proceeded for fome time. Mr. 
 Fox had a peace with America in his pocket, 
 and Mr. Burke undertook to remedy all the 
 diforders in our Eaftern government. Lord 
 North and his friends appeared in force when 
 Mr. Rigby's balances were under confideration, 
 but on all other occafions there was a very thin 
 attendance. In a few days after this great 
 change, I heard Mr. Burke publicly declare, 
 that Mr. Haftings and Mr. Macpherfon fhould 
 be removed. The runners of Adminiftration 
 without doors were bufily employed in circu- 
 lating the grofleft and moft palpable falfehoods, 
 in order to prejudice the public againft Mr. 
 Haftings. The Secret Committee made four 
 reports relative to the war in the Carnatic and 
 the conduct of Sir Thomas Rumbold. In the 
 Fifth and Sixth Reports they detailed the origin 
 and progrefs of the firft and fecond Maratta 
 4 war
 
 [ '7 ] 
 
 War fully and fairly; and they very (lightly 
 touched upon the political tranfactions in Ben- 
 gal previous to the year. 1775. In truth, this 
 could form no part of their enquiry. It was 
 alledged, that the Maratta war was the caufe 
 of the invafion of the Carnatic , it was, there- 
 fore fair to trace it to its origin : but no event 
 prior to it could at all. affect the peace and tran- 
 quility of India. This will not now be dif- 
 puted, though in the year 1782 it was fo much 
 the fafhion to accufe Mr. Haftings of having 
 forfeited the confidence of the natives of India. 
 On the 1 4th of April, 1782, the Chairman 
 of .the Secret Committee made a long ipeech, 
 which was followed by various refolutions, for- 
 ty-four in number, all tending to prove, that 
 the policy of the Britiih Government in Bengal 
 had been highly imprudent, and derogatory to 
 the national honour, and that there had been 
 much improper conduct at home. It was 
 fomething fmgular, that feveral of thefe refolu- 
 tions, which were paficd in a very thin houfe, 
 cenfured the Government of Bengal for with- 
 holding the tribute due to the Mogul, and the 
 penfion of Nuzeph Cawn, as well as the fale 
 of Corah and Allahabad. Thefe feveral mea- ^ 
 D fures
 
 C i ] 
 
 fures were adopted in the year 1773, had been 
 communicated to the Directors, of courfe to 
 His Majefty*s Minifters, and had been highly 
 approved of. If it was contrary to policy and 
 good faith, as the feventh refolurion afierts, to 
 withhold the tribute from the Mogul, on his 
 breaking off his connection with us, we ought 
 in juftice to pay- up all arrears, or, at leaft, to 
 remit the tribute to him in future; but the real 
 fact is, that the Englifh affifted the Mogul 
 when his fortunes were defperate, that they 
 gave up two fertile provinces to him, and 
 made him a remittance of twenty-fix lacks an- 
 nually from Bengal, until, in Ipite of all our 
 remonftrances, he quitted our protection, and 
 threw himfelf into the arms of the Marattas. 
 This happened before Mr. Haftings returned 
 to Bengal j and his conduct in a lituation which 
 he did not create, but found exifting on his 
 arrival, met with the warm approbation of his 
 conftituents. The unhappy Mogul is fo far 
 from attributing the misfortunes he has fuffered 
 to Mr. Haftings, that he keeps up a conftant 
 correfpondence with him, and depends upon 
 the Governor General's good offices for aflif- 
 tance againft the fuccefibrs of Nuzeph Cawn. 
 4 Expc-
 
 [ >9 3 
 
 Experience, alfo, has proved, that to purchafe 
 a pafifage for Colonel Pearce's detachment, wai 
 fo far from being an extravagant and difhonour- 
 able adt, as the thirty-ninth refolution afierts, 
 that it was actually the means of breaking the 
 grand confederacy, at the fame time that it in- 
 fured fo great a reinforcement to Sir Eyre Coote. 
 Equally unjuft is the refolution which condemns 
 the Supreme Council for attempting to procure 
 military affiftance from the Dutch, by the cef- 
 fion of Tinevelly. The Government of Ma- /' 
 dras had written to Bengal, reprefenting their 
 affairs to be irretrievable j it was then that Mr. 
 Haftings propofed the Dutch treaty, leaving 
 the Nabob and the Government of Madras to 
 confirm it or not. A happy change in their 
 fituation enabled them to keep the field ; they 
 declined to accept the treaty j and the Supreme 
 Council expreffed their fatisfaction in ftrong / 
 terms, declaring that they propofed it original- 
 ly, upon an idea of its being better to facrifice a 
 part of their pofieflions, than to lofe the whole. 
 The firft proceeding upon thefe extraordinary 
 refolutions was, to pafs another in a Committee 
 of the whole Houfe that the Directors fhould 
 remove thofe fervants whom Parliament had 
 D 2 cen-
 
 C * ] 
 
 cenfared. This, however, was never reported. 
 Juft at this period fome confufed and imperfect 
 accounts of the infurrection at Benares were re- 
 ceived in England. Thefe were greedily ieized 
 by the Select Committee ; and notice was given ' 
 to the Houfe of Commons on the 2yth of " ay, 
 that a refolution for the removal of Mr. Haf- 
 tings would be propofed on the following day. 
 When the refolution was read, I counted forty- 
 three members prefent, and Mr. Robinfon, of 
 Canterbury, very fhrewdly obferved, that it was 
 an extraordinary refolution to be propofed in 
 fuch a thin Houfe. Mr. Dundas, who propofed 
 it, expreflly ftaced his reafons for fo doing; that 
 in his opinion Mr. Haftings had forfeited the 
 confidence of the native princes, and that there- 
 fore his removal was nectrffary : but he fairly 
 declared, that he did not difpute the integrity, 
 or the abilities of the Governor General. Mr. 
 Fox on that day fpoke with great moderation. 
 Governor Johnftone, though differing in opi- 
 nion with Mr. Dundas, declared very freely, 
 that if the Government of this country would 
 not give its confidence to Mr. Haftings, it 
 xv uld be a right meafure to remove him : but 
 then L muft be done in a conltitucional mcnner, 
 
 by
 
 by bill. Mr. Burke on this occafion held very 
 ftrong language indeed. He declared, that 
 any man, or body of men, who Ihould dare to 
 difobey a refolution of the Houfe of Commons, 
 ought to be impeached. The refolution was 
 carried, and tranfmitted to the India Houfe. 
 Mr. Gregory and Sir Henry Fletcher filled the 
 two chairs at the time : but the former gentle- 
 man having folemnly engaged not to carry into 
 effect any refolution for the removal of Mr. 
 Haftings, until it had been communicated to a 
 General Court, we had time to look about us ; 
 and on the i8th of June, a very full Court of 
 Proprietors determined by a great majority, that 
 to remove Mr. Haftings merely becaufe the 
 Houfe of Commons had ordered it, would be 
 wrong. Again they determined, that the Di- 
 rectors ihould not carry into effect any refolu- 
 tion which they might come to for the removal 
 of Mr. Haftings, without previous communica- 
 tion to the General Court. No ftep whatever 
 .was taken in Parliament in confequence of this 
 fpinted conduct of the Proprietors. Mr. Fox, 
 indeed, did fay, that the fubject fhould be taken 
 up in the next feffion : but a matter of more 
 confequer.ee to that gentleman and his party 
 
 than
 
 C " 3 
 
 than the falvation of India now happened, 
 The Marquis of Rockingham died on the ift 
 of July ; and in the ftruggle for power at 
 home, Mr. Haftings was no longer remem- 
 bered. Mr. Fox's peace with America had 
 vaniflied, and he refigned, becaufe their in- 
 dependence was not inftantly acknowledged; 
 from which he predicted the happieft ef- 
 fedts, had it been granted, though fubfequent 
 events have proved tfiat he was much miftaken 
 in his conclufions. Thefe extraordinary pro- 
 ceedings in England had nearly deprived us of 
 India. Mr. Haftings, after having drawn off 
 Moodajee Boofla from the confederacy, having 
 fettled for the time with the Nizam, and fc- 
 cured a reinforcement of five regiments of fc- 
 poys to Sir Eyre Coote, was enabled, in the 
 month of October 1781, by having marched a 
 body of troops into Sindia's country, to con- 
 clude a feparate treaty with that chief. A total 
 ceflation of hoftilities with the Maratta ftatc 
 immediately followed. A negotiation was in- 
 ftantly fet on foot for a general peace, and in, 
 the month of May 1782, it was figned by Ma- 
 dajee Sindia and Mr. Anderfon, and tranfmitted 
 to Poonah to be ratified but now we expe- 
 rienced
 
 rienced the miferable coniequence of the Go- 
 vernment of India being counteracted by the 
 Government at home. In the month of Au- y' 
 guft 1782, accounts were received at Poona, 
 that the Miniftry had been changed, and that 
 it was the determination of the new Miniftry 
 to remove Mr. Haftings. The Marattas avow- 
 ed their intention of waiting the arrival of his V\ 
 fucceflbr before they ratified the treaty. Every 
 month brought frelh intelligence that ferved to 
 confirm them in this opinion. They knew per- 
 fectly well, that Mr. William Burke, who had 
 been received with every mark of honour by 
 the Rajah of Tanjore, was nearly connected 
 with the gentleman of the fame name who filled 
 a high office in England ; and it is a fad of V 
 public notoriety, that fince the eftablilhment of 
 the Supreme Council in 1774, the native Princes 
 of India pay the utmoft attention to the politi- 
 cal changes in Great Britain, fo far as they may 
 be fuppofed to affect the politics of India. In /\ 
 the month of November 1782, accounts were 
 received in India of the interference of the Ge- 
 neral Court in favour of Mr. Haftings, the 
 death of the Marquis of Rockingham, and the 
 refignatkm of Mr. Fox. Madojee Sindia con- 
 gratulated
 
 gratulated Mr. Haftings on this happy change 
 of affairs ; and on the ooth of the next month the 
 Maratta peace was formally ratified at Poona. 
 
 During the fummer of 1782, an enquiry into 
 the conduct of Mr. Haftings was carried on at 
 the India Houfe. Mr. Gregory refigned the 
 chair in Auguft, after having condemned in the 
 moft pointed terms every act that originated 
 with Mr, Haftings j and in order to weaken 
 the Britifh Government as much as poflible at 
 that critical moment, pofitive orders were fent 
 for the immediate reftoration of Mr. Briftow 
 and Mr. Fowke to Owde and Benares. In the 
 month of October 1782, thirteen Directors 
 pafied a refolution for the removal of Mr. Haf- 
 tings. Whatever Lord Shelburne's fentiments 
 might have been, he fupported this refolution, 
 but it was refcinded by the determination of a 
 moft refpectable Court of Proprietors ; and if 
 any man ftill believes the nonfenfe of the Pro- 
 prietors being the fervants of the fervants in In- 
 dia, let him candidly attend to the following 
 fads. 
 
 When Mr. Fox and Lord John Cavendifh 
 refigned in July 1782, the former gentleman 
 hinted in the Houfe, that amongft other caufes 
 
 of
 
 of difcontent which -induced him to give up, 
 Lord Shelburne had (hewn a difpofition to pro- 
 tect Eaft-India delinquents, and that he even 
 expected him to bring in Lord North, but 
 that the nation would not bear it. Perhaps 
 his Lorclmip conceived, that if he could not 
 venture to fupport Mr. Haftings, in confe- 
 quence of the prejudice which then prevailed, 
 k would be right to remove him, and he cer- 
 tainly laboured to effect it. The gentlemen 
 in the direction who voted for his removal, 
 fupported it in the General Court. The Rock- 
 ingham faction exerted themfelves on the fame 
 account, yet fuch was the general conviction of 
 the merits of Mr. Haftings, that all thefe in- 
 terefts combined, could mufter but feventy-five 
 votes upon a ballot, to oppofe to four hundred 
 and twenty-eight. All the Proprietors who 
 have ferved in India, refiding in Great Britain 
 and Ireland, are one hundred and five, fo that 
 if every man had attended and voted in favour 
 of Mr. Haftings, ftill his majority of Englifli 
 Proprietors whou'ld have been very confidera- 
 blej but fo far from there being at that time 
 a general agreement in his favour, I can point 
 out feveral India gentlemen, added to General 
 E 'Smith,
 
 r *6 ] 
 
 Smith, and Sir Henry Fletcher, who voted for 
 his removal. 
 
 We were threatened with the vengeance of 
 Parliament for this prudent exercife of our 
 rights ; but when it aflembled in December, 
 1782, the expectation of peace prevented an 
 immediate difcuflion of India affairs. The 
 Select Committee was revived, and after the 
 Chriftmafs recefs, a bill was promifed to be 
 brought in : then followed the peace, and 
 the overthrow of Lord Shelburne for having 
 made it ; for although Mr. Fox, in April, 
 1782, found the country " to be in a 
 *' much worfe fituation than even he had con- 
 " ceived it to be before he came into office," 
 and though " no peace, could then be a bad 
 " one, we had experienced fo happy a change 
 in our refources in nine months, that the termS 
 agreed to by Lord Shelburne were fo dif- 
 honourable, it was deemed better to coalefce 
 with Lord North, than to fuffer his Lordfhip 
 to remain in office. This bufinefs, however, 
 was not immediately effected, and India was 
 again left to itfelf. In the month of April, 1783, 
 the coalition Miniftry afiumed the government. 
 The Select Committee had beea diligently em- 
 ployed
 
 ployed in inveftigating the affairs of India, and, 
 on the i ft of April, they prefented a Report to 
 the Houfe, which appeared to ignorant men 
 to be intended merely for the purpofe of keep- 
 ing Mr. Sulivan and Sir William James out 
 of the direction, by exciting a clamour againft 
 them juft on the eve of our election, and be- 
 fore they could pofiibly have time to defend 
 themfelves. If this was the intention, it hap- 
 pily miffed of its effect, Mr. Sulivan and Sir 
 William James, came in with a high hand, and 
 then Mr. Fox found out, that though this 
 matter was of confequence, yet it was trifling 
 indeed compared to another which would foon 
 be before the Houfe. That all the world 
 knew there was a very important Report on the 
 point of being publilhed, and that then fome- 
 thing muft be done in the affairs of India j and 
 then too he would confider the Report which 
 affected Mr. Sulivan and Sir William James : 
 thus ended this trifling affair. Mr. Dundas's 
 bill was never read a fecond time. At length 
 the famous Report alluded to by Mr. Fox ap- 
 peared; it was intended to prove, that the 
 government of India was totally defective both 
 at home and abroad i and that horrible oppref- 
 E 2 fions
 
 t *8 3 
 
 fions had been Committed in India, and winked 
 at in England. Unfortunately, however, the 
 bufmefs of Mr. Powell, and Mr. Bembridge, 
 and other unlucky accidents, had fo foured 
 the temper of the Houfe, that it was not 
 thought quite prudent to attempt any thing 
 that fefiion againft Mr. Haftings, as his friends 
 Could oppofe to vague, and unfounded decla- 
 mation, undoubted evidence of the moft folid 
 and fubftantial fervices : the Maratta peace ; 
 the relief of Madras ; and trie improvement of 
 the revenues of Bengal. This feflion of Par- 
 liament ended as the preceding one, by Mr. 
 Fox pledging himfelf to do fomething effectual, 
 as foon as the Houfe met after the recefs. 
 
 During the fummer of 1783, advices of 
 great importance were received from India. 
 The French had drained every nerve to diftrefs 
 us; and in the midil of all the efforts of the 
 Supreme Council to defend Madras, the Grey- 
 hound packet arrived with difpatches from the 
 Court of Directors, tending to perfuade every 
 man in Bengal that the removal of Mr. Haf- 
 tings was near at hand. He had long borne 
 up againft this fpecies of counteraction ; but 
 conceiving there was a determination to force 
 
 him
 
 [ *9 3 
 
 him from Bengal, and that without fupport 
 from home, he could not expect to conduct the 
 public bufmefs to advantage ; he wrote in the 
 following terms to the Directors on the 21 ft of , _ 
 March, 1783: 
 
 " It is now a complete period of eleven years 
 fince I firft received the nominal charge of 
 your affairs. In the courfe of it I have invari- 
 ably had to contend, not with ordinary difficul- 
 ties, but fuch as moft unnaturally arofe from 
 the oppofition of thofe very powers from which 
 I primarily derived my authority, and which 
 were required for the fupport of it. My exer- 
 tions, though applied to an unvaried and confrf- 
 tent line of action, have been occafional and d- 
 fultory : yet I pleafe myfelf with the hope that, 
 in the annals of your dominion which fha41 be 
 written after the extinction of recent prejudice's, 
 this term of its adminiftration will appear not 
 the leafl conducive to the intereft of the Com- 
 pany, nor the leaft reflective of the honour of 
 the Britiih name; and allow me to fuggeft 
 the inftructive reflection of what good might 
 have been done, and what evil prevented, had 
 due iupport been given to that adminiftration 
 
 which
 
 C 3 J 
 
 :which has performed fuch eminent and fubftan- 
 tial fervices without it. 
 
 " You, honourable Sirs, can atteft the pa- 
 tience and temper with which I have fubmitted 
 to all the indignities which have been heaped 
 upon me in this long fervice. It was the duty 
 of fidelity which I efientially owed to it j it was 
 the return of gratitude which I owed, even 
 with the facrifice of life, had that been exacted, 
 to the Company, my original mafters, and moft 
 indulgent patrons. To thefe principles have I 
 devoted every private feeling, and perfevered 
 in the violent maintenance of my office j be- 
 caufe I was confcious that I poflefled, in my in- 
 tegrity, and in the advantages of local know- 
 ledge, thofe means of difcharging the functions 
 of it with credit to myfelf, and with advantage 
 to my employers, which might be wanting in 
 more fplendid talents ; and becaufe I had always 
 a ground of hope that my long fufferance would 
 difarm the prejudices of my adverfaries, or the 
 rotation of time produce that concurrence, in 
 the crifis of your fortune with my own, which 
 might place me in the fituation to which I af- 
 pired. In the mean time, there was nothing in 
 any actual ftate of your affairs which could dif- 
 
 courage
 
 [ 3 3 
 
 courage me from the profecuuon of this plan. 
 There was indeed an interval, and that of fome 
 duration, in which my authority was wholly 
 deftroyed ; but another was fubftituted in its 
 place, and that, though irregular, was armed 
 with the public belief of an influence invifibly 
 upholding it, which gave it a vigour fcarce lefs 
 effectual than that of a conftitutional power. 
 Befides, your government had no external 
 dangers to agitate, and difcover the loofenefs 
 of its compofition. 
 
 te The cafe is now mod widely different. 
 While your exiftence was threatened by wars 
 with the moft formidable powers of Europe, 
 added to your Indian enemies j and while you 
 confefTedly owed its prefervation to the feafona- 
 ble and vigorous exertions of this government, 
 you chofe that feafon to annihilate its conftitu- 
 tional powers. You annihilated the influence 
 of its executive mernber you proclaimed its 
 annihilation; you virtually called on his af- 
 fociates to withdraw their fupport from him, 
 and they have withdrawn it. But you have 
 fubfiftuted no other inftrument of rule in his 
 ftead, unlefs you fuppofe that it may exift, 
 and can be effefhwlly excrcifcd, in the body of 
 i your
 
 C 3 3 
 
 your Council at large ; poflefling no powr of 
 motion but an inert fubmifiion to the letter of 
 your commands ; which, however neceflary in 
 the wife intention of the legiflature, have never 
 yet been applied to the eftablifhment of any ori- 
 ginal plan or fyftem of meafures, and feldom 
 felt but in in (lances of perfonal favour or per- 
 fonal difpleafure. 
 
 " Under fuch a fituation, I feel myfelf im- 
 pelled, by the fame fpirit which has hitherto 
 animated me to retain my poft againft all the at- 
 tempts made to extrude me from it, to adopt 
 the contrary line. The feafon for contention is 
 p:\ft. The prefent flate of affairs is not able to 
 bear it. I am morally certain, that my fuc* 
 ceflbr in this government, whoever he may be, 
 will be allowed to poflefs and exercife the necef- 
 fary powers of his ftation, with the confidence 
 and fupport of thofe, who, by their choice of 
 him, will be interested in his fuecefs. I am be- 
 come a burden to the fervice j and would in- 
 ftantly relieve it from the incumbrance, were I 
 not apprehenfive of creating worfe confequences 
 by my abrupt removal from it. Such an a6l 
 would probably be confidered, by Mahdajee 
 Sindia, as a defertion of him in the inftant of 
 
 his
 
 C 33 ] 
 
 his accomplifhment of the treaty, and defeat 
 the purpofes of it, which remain yet to be ef- 
 fected by his agency. I am alfo perfuaded that 
 it would be attended with the lofs of the com- 
 mander in chief, in whofe prefence alone I look 
 for the federation of peace to the Carnatic, 
 which he, perhaps, would think too hazardous 
 an undertaking with no other fupport than that 
 of a broken government. I have now no wifh 
 remaining, but to fee the clofe of this calami- 
 tous fcene, and for that I hope a few months 
 will be fufficient. My fervices may afterwards 
 be fafely withdrawn j but will ftill be due, in 
 my conception of what I owe to my firft confti- 
 tuents, until they can be regularly fupplied by 
 thofe of my appointed fucceffor, or until his 
 fucceffion fhall have been made known, and 
 the interval but mort for his arrival. 
 
 " It therefore remains to perform the duty 
 which I had afligned to myfelf as the final pur- 
 pofe of this letter ; to declare, as I now mofl 
 formally do, that it is my defire that you will 
 be pleafed to obtain the early nomination of a 
 perfon to fuccceed me in the government of Fort 
 William j to declare that it is my intention to 
 refign your fervice as foon as I can do it wich- 
 F out
 
 [ 34 ] 
 
 out prejudice to your affairs, after the allow- 
 ance of a competent time for your choice of a 
 perfon to fucceed me; and to declare, that if, 
 in the intermediate time, you mall proceed to 
 order the reftoration of Rajah Cheyt Sing to 
 the Zemindary, from which, by the powers I 
 legally pofTefled, and conceive myfelf legally 
 .bound to afiert, againft any fubfequent autho- 
 rity to the contrary derived from the fame com- 
 mon fource, he was difpoflefled for crimes of the 
 greateft enormity, and your Council lhall re- 
 folve to execute the order; I will inftantly give 
 up my flation and the fervice." 
 
 However defirous the friends of Mr. Haf- 
 tings might have been to retain him in the 
 government of Bengal, here was an earned re- 
 queft from himfelf to be relieved. No ftep 
 was taken either by the Directors or his Ma- 
 jefty's Minifters in confequence of it. The 
 letter was received in September laft, and the 
 following month the Court of Proprietors 
 voted him their thanks for his fervices ; to 
 which they added, a requeft that he would not 
 refign until the complete reftoration of peace in 
 India, and the arrangements in confequence of 
 it had taken place. 
 
 This
 
 [ 35 ] 
 
 This was the precife fituation of affairs when 
 the late Houfe of Commons met on the I4th of 
 November. When the refolution patted in a thin 
 Houfe in May 1782 for the recal of Mr. Haf- 
 tings, we were at war with the Marattas, with 
 Hyder Ally, the French, and the Dutch. A 
 ftrange idea prevailed, that Mr. Haftings had 
 forfeited the confidence of the native Princes, 
 and that his removal was neceffary, as a ftep 
 preparatory to peace. Subfequent events had 
 proved the fallacy of this opinion. Mr. Haftings 
 made the Maratta peace ; he relieved the Car- 
 natic j Hyder was dead ; and a peace had been 
 concluded in Europe ; Bengal was in a perfect 
 flate of tranquillity , snd the revenues were 
 annually improving. 
 
 On the firft day of the feffion, the nth 
 of November, Mr. Fox informed the Houle, 
 that he \vould open the heads of a bill 
 for the government of India on the fol- 
 lowing Tuefday. Every pofllble exertion 
 was made to infure fuccefs to his plan ; a very 
 artful pamphlet had been publifhed, and gene- 
 rally diftributed previous to the meeting of 
 Parliament, in which the grofieft mifreprefen- 
 tation were inferred, in order to prejudice the 
 public againft the Eaft-India Company and 
 F 2 Mr.
 
 C 36 ] 
 
 Mr. Haftings*. The newfpapers were well 
 fupplied with paragraphs tending to the fame 
 end. The SeleS Committee, a very few days 
 after they affembled, publifhed their Eleventh 
 Report without an Appendix. This was in- 
 flantly re-printed by Mr. Debrett, who during 
 the fummer had printed the Ninth Report 
 alfo; and left the world mould want an induce- 
 ment to read them, they were advertifed as 
 containing an account of the conduct of Mr. 
 Haftings, and of money acknowledged to have 
 been received by htm. Thefe Reports were 
 fent to the prefent Lord Chancellor, amongft 
 other Peers, under a blank cover. Is it there- 
 fore extraordinary, that feeling an honeft indig- 
 nation at a proceeding fo fcandalous, his Lord- 
 
 * A confickrable part of this pamphlet is very much in the 
 ftyle of Mr. Fox's fpeech when he opened his plan. Speaking 
 of the Seleft Committee, the writer fays, " This Committee 
 *' is compofed of gentlemen of the moft unfullied probity and 
 tf firft-rate talents, whofe knowledge of the fubjecl: cannot be 
 " queftioned, and whofe induftry and pcrfeverance are only to 
 " be equalled by their candour and fairnefs. To diftinguilh 
 " individuals without naming the whole, would be invidious. 
 " The proceedings of this highly refpeftable Committee have 
 " been always open and public. The teftimony of witnefles 
 " has been taken in the moft folemn manner." 
 
 Thefe are a few of the compliments paid to the Select Com- 
 mittee ; and the author then gives up fome extracts from the 
 Ninth Report, vfrhich he flyles an " invaluablodocument." 
 
 ihip
 
 C 37 ] 
 
 ihip mould have declared, that to fuch Reports 
 cr he would pay as much attention as to the 
 " Adventures of Robinfon Crufoe." 
 
 On the 1 8th of November, Mr. Fox, in a 
 very long fpeech, opened his plan. Inftead of at- ** 
 tributing the temporary diftrefs of theEaft-India 
 Company to their true caufes, the American 
 war, and the pernicious interference of Minifters, 
 which no man formerly reprobated in harfher 
 terms than himfelf, he now declared, that our 
 misfortunes were owing to the mifmanagement 
 of Mr. Haftings in India, and to the fupporc ' 
 which he met with from his agents and depen- 
 dents at home. In the courfe of his fpeech, 
 he uent through all the unfounded charges 
 that have been infmuated in the Reports of the 
 Select Committee 5 and after defcribing Mr. 
 Haftings as a corrupt, ambitious, and unprin- . t 
 cipled Governor, he moved for leave to bring 
 in a bill not to remove, not to punifh the Go- 
 vernor, but totally to annihilate the privileges 
 of his conftituents, for which he afligned two 
 curious reafons ; the one, that the Proprietors 
 were become the fervants, of the fervants in In- 
 dia , the other, that they were unfit, by their 
 conftitution, for the management of an em- 
 354'; P : re.
 
 C 3 3 
 
 pire. The firft is one amongft many fanciful 
 ideas which are to be found in the Ninth Re- 
 port; but to prove the truth of it, nothing 
 like the (hadow of an argument has ever yet 
 been offered. To mention the conquefts ac- 
 quired during the war by the Kaft-India Com- 
 pany, and the honourable manner in which 
 they have terminated it, would be the com- 
 pleted anfvver that could poffibly be given to 
 the tecond aflcrtion. During the many difcuf- 
 fions that this famous bill received in the Houfe 
 of Commons, Mr. Fox and his friends varied 
 their ground very often. They explained away, 
 in fome meafure, what had been faid of the 
 bankruptcy of the Company. It had been 
 firated in all the ncwfpapers that Mr. Fox de- 
 clared, we had but three millions two hundred 
 thoufand pounds to pay a debt of above eleven 
 millions. This funk the flock near fifteen 
 per cent, in one day. 
 
 It is impoffible not to take notice of a very 
 curious circumftance which paflfed on the day 
 the bill was read a fccond time: Mr. Fox dif- 
 puted the items of the Company's account, ar- 
 ticle by article, in the moft ingenious and en- 
 tertaining fpeech I ever heard. The Company 
 4 had
 
 C 39 3 
 
 had ftated the amount of their cafli, bonds, and 
 notes, to be above fix hundred thoufand pounds, 
 then lying in their Treafury in Leadenhall 
 Street. 
 
 After a few items more, there was the fol- 
 lowing " Silver remaining in the Treafury for 
 " exportation one thoufand and ninety 
 " pounds." There cannot be a greater proof 
 of the advantage acquired by this nation, 
 from the acquifition of Bengal, than the 
 following : That from the commencement 
 of the prefent century to the year 1764, 
 the average of filver exported was near 
 400,000!. each year; but from 1764 to the 
 prefent time, it is a mere trifle. A confidera- 
 ble quantity of fpecie has been brought into 
 the kingdom from India fince 1764. But how 
 did Mr. Fox turn this? He appeared totally to 
 forget the former fum of cafh in the Treafury, 
 fix hundred thoufand pounds, and obferved, 
 * The next item was, filver remaining in the 
 " Treafury, 1090!. The only notice which he 
 * meant to take of this article was, to declare 
 ** his aftonimment, or, rather indeed, not his 
 " aftonimment, but to point it out as a fact 
 " which proved his ftatement of their finances 
 
 to
 
 [ 40 ] 
 
 " to be right. After enumerating their millions 
 " afloat, their millions in the vvarehoufes, they 
 <e came to the calculation of their fpecie, and it 
 " amounted to the fum of 1090!. This re- 
 " minded him of an article in one of our Great 
 " Bard's beft plays, where, fpeaking of one of 
 " his beft characters, it is faid, c So much for 
 <( fack fo much for fugar fo much for 
 " burnt hock fo much for this, and fo much 
 " for that ; but for the folid, the fubflantial, 
 " the ftafF of life bread, one halfpenny.' So 
 " it was with this flourifhing Company : they 
 " had millions of goods, of bonds, of debts ; 
 " but of filver they had one folitary thoufand 
 tc pounds." 
 
 This remark was received with the ftrongeft 
 figns of approbation in the Houfe : it was re- 
 peated in every newfpaper the following day 3 
 and I am fure the firft imprefiion the Public 
 received was, that the Company's Treafury 
 contained but a folitary thoufand pounds on the 
 28th of November laft. 
 
 The preamble of Mr. Fox's bill runs thus : 
 " Whereas diforders of an alarming nature and 
 <c magnitude have long prevailed, and do ftill 
 " continue and increafe, in the management of 
 
 " the
 
 [ 4i J 
 
 tc the territorial poffeflions, the revenues, and 
 * commerce of this kingdom in the Eaft In- 
 dies, by means whereof the profperity of 
 " the natives hath Seen greatly diminimed, and 
 " the valuable interefts of this nation, in the 
 " faid territorial revenues, &c. have been ma- 
 ' terially impaired, and would fall into utter 
 " ruin, if an immediate and fitting remedy 
 " were not provided." The arguments of Mr. 
 Fox and his friends intirely coincided with the 
 fpirit of this preamble *. Mr. Haftings and 
 Sir Eyre Coote were declared not to wifti for 
 peace. fThey perfecuted the excellent Lord 
 Macartney, becaufe he was defirous of accom- 
 pliming it. God only knew whether that no- 
 ble Lord had not lhared the fate of Lord Pigot. 
 It was doubtful whether India could be faved at 
 all, or peace reftored ; but it was only to be 
 
 * Mr. Fox. rt The feeds ofvvar were already fown in India ; 
 and a note left by Sir Eyre Coote, a man who deferred every 
 poffible praife, independent of his gallant actions, afforded 
 alarming proofs of it.'" 
 
 f Mr. Fox. " Did the Houfe know of the difputes in our 
 Prefidencies ? That Lord Macartney, that great and exalted 
 wian, the only man "who paid obedience to his conftituents, 
 was at this inftant perhaps removed, confined, perhaps come 
 to the fate of Lord Pigot?" Vide Debrctt's Debates for 
 .November, 1783, pages 160 and 171, 
 
 G effected,
 
 [ 4* 3 
 
 effected, if poffible to be effected, by an imme- 
 diate change of fyftemj and therefore ;he bill 
 ought to pafs without delay. This was the lan- 
 guage of its fupporters j and when, happily for 
 the nation, it was thrown out, they prefented 
 an addrefs to the Throne, in which they fay, 
 " That the diforders prevailing in the Eaft In- 
 " dies call aloud for inftant reformation." 
 
 On the fame day that Mr. Fox moved for 
 leave to bring in his bill, a packet failed from 
 Bengal, conveying to us the fulleft proofs that 
 the ftate of India was at that time the very re- 
 verfe of what it had been reprefented, and 
 that the only difficulties the Government cf 
 Bengal laboured under were occafioned by the 
 abfurd conduct of His Majefty's Minifters 
 at home. We learnt that on the i8th of 
 ^November the Carnatic had been nearly evacua- 
 ted ; that the conditions of the peace with the 
 Marattas had been faithfully executed on both 
 fides ; that we had concluded an eventual treaty 
 with them, in order to compel Tippoo Sultaun 
 to accept of reafonable terms ; and that the 
 only objeft of concluding that treaty was to ac- 
 celerate the peace with him. That our army had 
 been confiderably reduced, and that farther re- 
 i duclions
 
 C 43 J 
 
 chjftions were determined upon as foon as our 
 foreign detachments Ihould reach Bengal. That 
 the Supreme Council, though highly difapprov- 
 ing the conduct of Lord Macartney, had deter- 
 mined to await the decifion of the Court of Di- 
 rectors. This was the actual fituation of affairs in 
 .India at the moment the late Miniftry propofed 
 fo violent a meafure. Subfequent advices have 
 been (till more favourable ; and there is not a 
 man of common underftanding in England who 
 muft not fee that the preamble of the India 
 bill was founded in mifinformation, or that His 
 Majefty's late Minifters were determined to ex- 
 aggerate the diftreffes they had themfelves crea- 
 ted, in order to feized the patronage and property 
 of the Eaft-India Company for their own fecu- 
 rity. That we have participated in the calami- 
 ties which have nearly overwhelmed this coun- 
 try is certain That the prodigious efforts made 
 by France to difpoffefs us of India, could not 
 have been fo fuccefsfully repelled without great 
 and enormous expences, no man will doubt 
 That in fo long a war, fome individuals muft 
 have acquired -money is true j but what propor- 
 tion do the fortunes lately gained in India bear 
 to the acquifitions of individuals in England 
 G 2 during
 
 [ 44 ] 
 
 during the unfortunate American war ? Yet it 
 was the fafliion, lad winter, for Mr. Fox and 
 his friends to hurl the thunder of their elo- 
 quence at the devoted Eaft-India Company. 
 If any impartial man examines the funds of the 
 Company, I am fure he will form a patriotic 
 wifh, that this nation may have as fair a profpect 
 of being extricated out of all her difficulties as 
 the Eaft-India Company has at the prefent 
 moment. 
 
 The India bill pafied the Houfe of Commons 
 by a prodigious majority. Mr. Macdonald 
 very (hrewdly obferved, that to carry this enor- 
 mous defign through, three different grounds 
 had been laid on three different days. On the 
 firft day, it was the fuppofed mifconduct of Mr. 
 Haftings : on the fecond, the fuppofed bank- 
 ruptcy of the Company ; and on the third, a 
 radical defect in the prefent fyftem. 
 
 Lord John Cavendiih aflerted, " that the bill 
 " was fuch a meafure as the fituation of affairs 
 " required. Nobody but a child, or a trifler, 
 f< would think of continuing the prefent confti- 
 " tution of the India Company." I have too 
 good an opinion of the integrity and honour of 
 Lord John Cavendilh, to fuppofe he would 
 
 have
 
 [ 45 3 
 
 have made fuch a declaration, unlefs he had 
 been convinced at the time of the truth of it. 
 The fame obfervation I apply to the other 
 gentlemen who fupported it ; but it is now 
 proved, beyond contradiction, that the Houfc 
 and the Public were egregioufly milled, fince 
 every fhip that has arrived from India during 
 the fummer, has brought full and complete 
 proof, that our affairs, fa far from being in 
 danger of falling into C{ utter ruin" are in a 
 ilate of profperity, which far exceeds the hopes 
 of the moft fanguine of our well withers. 
 
 In the Houfe of Lords, the fame arguments 
 that had been fo fuccefsfully urged in the 
 Houfe of Commons were repeated, but with 
 very different effect. The Company were pa- 
 tiently heard by their Counfel, and they proved 
 to the fatisfa"cT:ion of every impartial man, that 
 the preamble of the bill was totally unfounded. 
 The fupport the bill met with was exceedingly 
 feeble ; but the fpeeches of the Duke of Rich- 
 mond, Lords Thurlow, Camden, Walfingham, 
 and other noble Lords, in reprobation of fuch 
 a fyftem as the bill went to eftablifh, effec- 
 tually convinced the Houfe and the Public, 
 tfcat they had been hitherto grofsly deceived. 
 
 The
 
 [ 46 ] 
 
 The Lord Chancellor in particular, moft happily 
 expofed the absurdity and the iniquity of 
 punilhing the Company, for the alled^ed mif- 
 conduft of Mr. Haftings, and fairly declared, 
 that it would be fcandalous in the highdt de- 
 gree to permit Mr. Haftings to efcape if he 
 was guilty, or to brand him with the name of 
 delinquent if innocent. If Mr. Haftings, or 
 his friends in his abfence, had ever deprecated 
 the vengeance of his opponents, if they had 
 bargained for his Jafety by continuing to Jland 
 neuter 0t this critical moment, there might have 
 been fome ground to fuppofe, that his conduct 
 would not bear a fcrutiny ; but this was fo far 
 from being the cafe, that Mr. Haftings has 
 faid, " if I have violated the national faith, no 
 *' punifhment fhort of death can atone for the 
 '* injury which the intereft and credit of the 
 cc State has fuftained*." This is the lan- 
 guage 
 
 * Many are the honourable teflimonies of efteem and re- 
 gard which Mr. Haftings has received from gentlemen who 
 are utter ftrangers to him, and totally unconnected with the 
 politics of India. The following mueh-admired paffages arfc 
 extracted from the letters of Mr. Day to Mr. Burke, pub-, 
 lifted under the fignature of Marius. 
 
 I muft confefs it flrikes me with no little idea " of the in- 
 *< conftancy of human greatnefs, and the ftypendous revolu-
 
 C 47 ] 
 
 guage of Mr. Haftings in India ; the language 
 of his friends in England has been the fame ; 
 Mr. Fox, if he really thought Mr. Haftings 
 * f an ufurper and a fcourge to mankind, a 
 
 " cruel 
 
 ** dons that have happened in our age of wonders," when I 
 fee a fet of men, who have juft loft Thirteen Provinces, fitting 
 in judgement upon, and difpoffeffing thofe, who have added 
 to the Britifh empire '* 181,412 fquare miles, which form a 
 territory larger than any European dominion, Ruffia and 
 Turkey excepted." Whatever may be now advanced by inte- 
 tereft or malevolence about the crimes or incapacity of the 
 Company's fervants, is amply confuted by the unexaggerated 
 detail of events. What ftronger evidence can be given of the 
 folid bafis upon which any human power is founded, than its 
 capacity to refift and triumph over the mightieft attacks ? This 
 even, excluf:vely, is the boaft of the Eaft-India Company. 
 With every difadvantage of difficulty aia<J diftance, it has 
 prevailed not only over the feeble oppofition of Afiatic Prin- 
 ces, but over all the efforts of one of the moft politic and war- 
 like nations in the univerfe. Could this have been effected 
 without a fpirit both of counfd. and of enterprife ? No ; 
 whatever may be the reprefentations of parliamentary orators, 
 the world at large will refute the wild and chimerical accufa- 
 tion. Whatever may be the demerits of the Company, what- 
 ever the catalogue of its crimes, the comparative feries of its 
 Minifters may certainly vie with that of any modern govern- 
 ment in Europe. It has undoubtedly produced warriors of 
 intrepid minds, and heroes of immortal fame ; chiefs that 
 liave dared in their employers' and country's caufe, all that 
 men can dare, that have executed every thing which the 
 prefent colleagues of Mr. Burke -have failed to do- Even 
 now, " on evil days, though fallen, and evil tongues," it 
 can boaft of charters that would do honour to any nation ; 
 the foremoft of whom is that very culprit that feems fmgty 
 like an electric rod upon a noble edifice, to have protected 
 
 the
 
 <e cruel and a defperate man, whom from his 
 " heart and foul he detefted and execrated *,'* 
 has afted, as a public man, moft unwarranta- 
 bly. The honour of the nation is concerned 
 not to permit an ufurper to efcape with impu- 
 nity, and fupported by fo powerful a majority 
 as Mr. Fox lately was, if he could have fub- 
 ihntiated a fingle charge againft Mr. Haftingj, 
 he could have removed him inftantly by bilL 
 To fay that Mr. Haftings had an influence in 
 Parliament to bear him up againft the eloquence 
 and power of Mr. Fox, if he had been " a 
 " notorious delinquent," would be to impofe 
 upon mankind. During the madnefs of the 
 Buckingham Adminiftration, when the Houfe 
 of Commons pafled a refolution, " that it 
 " was the duty of the Directors to recal Mr. 
 tc Haftings s" no gentleman offered to divide 
 the Houfe, and the obfervations made upon 
 
 the building beneath, while he attracts the fury of the tem- 
 ped upon himfelf. Yet even he, " fcathcd " as he may ap- 
 pear, with all the lightnings of parliamentary vengeance, 
 or afks the mercy, nor deprecates the rage of his accufers : 
 he is ready to leave the throne of half the Eafl, in order to 
 meet their impeachments ; he bids them take his life, if any 
 thing worthy of death fhall be found in his conduct j nor 
 dare his moft inveterate enemies accept the offer. 
 
 * Mr.Fox's fpeech, Dec. 17, 1783. Debrett's Debates, 
 Vol. XII, 
 
 the
 
 C 49 ] 
 
 the occafion, were firft by Governor Johnftone, 
 that if Minifters were determined to remove 
 him, they did not go the right way to do it ; 
 and next by the worthy member for Canter- 
 bury, who faid, that the Houfe was rather 
 thin (forty- three members prefent) confider- 
 ing the great importance of the refolution. 
 What acceffion of intereft or influence had Mr. 
 Haftings acquired in twenty months, that 
 mould fupport him in the fame Houfe of Com- 
 mons, againft fuch an hod of able and power- 
 ful opponents? The fact is, he was defended 
 by the people of England, who had fenfe 
 enough to fee through the arts that were prac- 
 tifed to depreciate the character of the man who 
 has preferved every thing in Afia, while in other 
 quarters of the globe we have loft every thing ; 
 and who alked no other favour from the late 
 Minifters, than to be brought before fome tri- 
 bunal, where he could be permitted to defend 
 himfelf. During the progrefs of the bill 
 through the Houfe of Commons, many efforts 
 were made to effect this, and particularly by 
 Governor Johnftone, who declared, repeatedly, 
 that the foundation of the bill being built on 
 the pretended mifconduct of Mr. Haftings, it 
 H was
 
 [ 5 ] 
 
 was as unjuft as it was abfurd, not to. bring 
 forward fpecific charges againft that gentle- 
 man. All his efforts were vain, for Mr. Fox 
 continued to declare, that the merits or de- 
 merits of Mr. Haftings were not then a 
 fubject of confideration, but when the fame 
 
 .line was taken in the Houfe of Lords by 
 one noble Peer-, the prefent Lord Chancellor 
 declared, as in truth and juftice he was 
 bound to do, that it would be impoffible to 
 difcufs the bill without entering fully into the 
 merit or mifcondu6t of Mr. Haftings j the con- 
 fequence was, that Lord Walfingham's reply 
 to the fpeeches of Lords Carlifle, and Sandwich, 
 was a moft complete refutation of every thing 
 that had been laid relative to Benares, Oud, and 
 a variety of fubj^cts which had been partially in- 
 veftigateci in the Reports oft he Select Committee. 
 Not an argument ufcd by the noble Lords who 
 oppofed the bill, was anfwered, or even an at- 
 tempt made to reply to their objections. 
 
 All that had been faid of the bankruptcy of 
 the Company, of the mifconduct of Mr. Haf- 
 
 . tings, of the cabals and intrigues between the 
 fcrvants in India and their dependents in Eng- 
 land, moft happily miffed its effect. The bill 
 
 was
 
 [ 51 ] 
 
 was defervedly loft, and every day, every hour 
 brings conviction to the mind of every man, that 
 the aflertions made by thofe who fupported the 
 bill had no foundation in fact, that they were 
 artfully calculated to catch the prejudices of the 
 moment, with the hope that a rrteafure, big with 
 fuch important confequences to our happy con- 
 ftitution, would have pafTed, before the Public 
 were fenfible of its pernicious effects. 
 
 When Mr. Fox propofed the bill, we laboured v 
 under every pofiible disadvantage. Our Chair- 
 man, who was bound to be our protector, was 
 one of the feven Commiffioners, and was to 
 have rifen upon the ruin of the Company. If 
 he thought the bill a good one, he was right to 
 fupport it ; but from the moment he took that 
 line, he mould have difqualified ; it was not, 
 however, till the fecond reading that he quitted 
 the direction. It was with difficulty we could y\ 
 procure the infertion of any articles in the daily 
 papers (one excepted) which tended to difprove y 
 the flagrant falfehoods that were hourly circu- 
 lating. But when the bill was before the Houie 
 of Peers, our reprefentations began to have fome 
 effect j and I defire the mod prejudiced party 
 man in England to contradict me if he can, 
 H 2 when
 
 C 5 ] 
 
 when I afiert, that every letter received from 
 India in the courfe of the prefent year, has fully 
 juftified the ftatements we laid before the Public. 
 The bill was thrown out by the Lords on the 
 1 7th of December, and the change of Miniftry 
 followed. In the firft tumult that fucceeded 
 this event, we now and then heard of Mr. Haf* 
 tings, and of India. Thr former was dated to 
 be an ufurper, but upon w;.:t ground I know 
 not. If the gentlemen who report Mr. Fox's 
 fpeeches are accurate, he has decidedly 
 affirmed, <f that India would be loft without 
 inftant reformation : Thirty millions of in- 
 nocent people were groaning under every 
 fpecies of oppreffion, and fecret influence had 
 deftroyed the ilrongeft Adminiftration this coun- 
 try had ever been blelTed with." Thefe fubje&s, 
 however, were very foon abandoned for others 
 of infinitely greater importance to the late Ad- 
 miniftration. But at length the Parliament was 
 diffblved, without any plan for the government 
 of India being adopted : and here again I muft 
 obferve, how unfortunate His Majefty's late Mi- 
 ni tiers were in their predictions laft year. It 
 Was declared, that without the inflant adoption of 
 fome plan, India would be loft j a bill rraift pafs 
 beforfe February, and perhaps all the expedition 
 
 they
 
 C 53 1 
 
 they could ufe would not Awe that country. Have 
 not events, univerfally known, now mofl com- 
 pletely proved, how fallacious and unfounded 
 thefe apprehenCons were. Peace is completely 
 reftored, retrenchments have been made, and 
 the revenues greatly improved j where then is 
 " that utter ruin," in which, according to the 
 preamble, we were to be involved, " if an im- 
 " mediate and fitting remedy was not pro- 
 vided." 
 
 While the bill, that has lately patted for the 
 better government of India, was under difcuf- 
 lion, much was faid of the conduct of Mr. 
 Haftings, and the influence he had acquired in 
 this kingdom ; his difobedience of orders, and 
 contempt of fuperior authority, were frequently 
 mentioned. 
 
 With refpect to Mr. Haftings's influence in 
 England, whatever may be the degree of it, I 
 can fafely afferr, that it has been fairly and ho- 
 nourably acquired, and that he may glory in it; 
 that there never was a man in a public (lation, 
 fo totally unconnected with the parties which 
 divide this kingdom as Mr. Haftings is, th*t 
 he has neither courted Mr. Fox, nor Mr. Pitt; 
 and all he has ever required lias been, fairly and 
 
 openly
 
 C 54 ] 
 
 Openly to be fupported if he deferves fupport, or 
 to be recalled if thought unworthy of confidence; 
 he has never fought to preferve his ftation by 
 cabal and intrigue, and has ever held that bold, 
 decided language in Bengal, which every man of 
 fpirit muft efteem him for. That Mr. Haftings 
 has, by corruption, by bribery, or by any means 
 whatever that would degrade the character of 
 a gentleman, obtained influence of any kind in 
 England, I folemnly deny ; not a fhadow of a 
 proof has been offered to convince the world, 
 that he has reforted to fuch bafe means of fup- 
 port. Two or three very good things, indeed, 
 have been faid, as to the number of Indians 
 now in Parliament, but I have proved, that 
 there were precifely the fame number in the lad; 
 the only difference is, that the balance was then 
 in favour of Mr. Fox, and now it is on the fide 
 of Mr. Pitt. It has alfo been wittily obferved, 
 that the Treafury Bench was under the India 
 Bench in the laft feflion, but here, again, I can- 
 not help recollecting, that I have fcen General 
 Smith, Captain' Sir Henry Fletcher, and Mr. 
 Jacob Wilkinfon upon that Bench, and 1 cannot 
 help thinking, that Mr. George Vanfittart, Co* 
 lonel Call, and myfelf, were as well intitled 
 
 to
 
 [ 55 1 
 
 to all thofe feats, as the gentlemen who formerly 
 occupied them. 
 
 Mr. Haftings has been accufed, in general 
 terms, of difobedience of orders, and Mr. Fox 
 attributed the wars in India to his difregard of 
 the inftructions he received from home ; but 
 from this charge Mr. Dundas mofl completely 
 defended him, by proving, that whether the 
 Maratta war was politic or not, fo far as Mr. 
 Haftings was concerned in it, he was fully jufti- 
 fied by the exprefs orders of the Court of Di- 
 rectors, and he might have gone farther, for 
 thofe orders had the exprefs function of his 
 Majefty's Minifters ; though one fet of gentle- 
 men appear now to be totally ignorant, not 
 only of this circumflance, but of the very im- 
 portant intelligence tranfmitted to Bengal by 
 Mr. Elliot, and inferted in the Appendix to 
 the Sixth Report of the Secret Committee. 
 I have already derailed the events which gave 
 rife to the Rohilla war in 1773, and it was 
 commenced, and ended in fix months. Thefe 
 are the only hostilities in which we have borne 
 a part in Bengal during the laft twenty years,- 
 but a ftranger, who was to read the late parlia- 
 mentary debates, would really fuppofe we had 
 
 been
 
 C s 3 
 
 been engaged in perpetual war in Bengal; > 
 though in truth, at no period of the modern 
 hiftory of Indoftan, has that country enjoyed 
 fo long a peace, as fince the Englifii acquired 
 the government. 
 
 It wasafferted *, that Mr. Haftings difobeyed 
 a peremptory order for the reftoration of Cheyt 
 Sing, but no orders of this kind ever were 
 lent i and abfurd, and mad I might almoft fay, 
 35 the conduct of the lat?e Minrfters^ with refpe& 
 to India, has been, I can fcarcely conceive it 
 ever was in contemplation to reftore him. 
 The whole of the proceeding relative to Cheyt 
 Sing was ftrictly confonant to the conftitution 
 of the government under which he lived. He 
 has been ranked here amongft the native princes 
 of Indij, but his family owed its confequence 
 entirely to the Englrfli. His father, Bulwant 
 Sing, was originally a petty zemindar in the 
 diftrict of Juanpore, and paid about four thou- 
 fand rupees a year to the government : he then 
 became collector or farmer of a diftricT: under 
 his fovereign Sujah Dowlah, and at length was 
 appointed the collector of Benares. In this 
 
 * Mr. Fox's fpcech, i6th of July. 
 
 fituatioa
 
 C 57 J 
 
 Situation we found him when Sujah Dowlah was 
 marching to invade Bengal. We prote&ed 
 him againft the vengeance of his Sovereign in 
 1764, and he was confirmed in the zemindary, 
 by the treaty of Allahabad, in 1765. From 
 that time to the day the fovereignty of Benares 
 was transferred to the Company, Sujah Dowlah 
 required military afiiftance from Bulwant Sing 
 and his fon Cheyt Sing, whenever his forces 
 took the field, and he received it *. We 
 made a fimilar demand when the war broke out 
 with France, and Cheyt Sing promifed to com- 
 ply with it. That he evaded his promife I at- 
 tribute entirely to the diflentions in our councils 
 and his expectation of a change in the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In this bufinefs of Cheyt Sing there is a 
 circumftance that, I confefs, furprifes me ex- 
 ceedingly, which is this : The gentlemen who 
 have argued upon it feem totally to forget that 
 the demand of money had been made three fuc- 
 ceflive years previous to the infurrection, and 
 compliance enforced by military execution. 
 
 * For proof of this, fee the evidence given by Colonel 
 Harper to the Seleft Committee in 1781, long before the 
 infurredlion at Benares. 
 
 I A very
 
 C 58 1 
 
 A very particular detail of each year's pro- 
 ceedings was tranfmitted to England in tripli- 
 cate. Did his Majefty's late Minifters, or did 
 one gentleman in the direction ever give an 
 opinion that Mr. Haftings and his council had 
 violated the national faith by demanding, on the 
 part of the Company, military afiiftance from 
 their vaflal Cheyt Sing ? Certainly they did 
 not, nor was fuch an idea ever entertained till 
 it became the fafhion to decry the character of 
 Mr. Haftings. Yet Mr. Gregory and Sir 
 Henry Fletcher were in the direction at the 
 period when the demands were made, and the 
 confequences communicated. Lord North was 
 the Minifter, too, at the time. Shall thefe 
 gentlemen be excufed for their conduct, and 
 fhall Mr. Haftings now be calumniated ? He 
 and his Council acted right. As guardians of 
 the Britifh intereft in India, they demanded 
 what, in their idea, was the Company's right ; 
 but if there were men in office in England of a 
 different opinion, as it feems there were by 
 their fubfequent conduct, they are criminal 
 in not protefting againft a meafure which was 
 deemed a violation of the national faith. 
 
 The
 
 C 59 3 
 
 The other inftances of difobedience of orders 
 which have been quoted were the not fending 
 Mr. Briftow to Oud and Mr. Fowke to Be- 
 nares. Is there a man of common fenfe in 
 England who can now entertain a doubt upon 
 this fubject ? Thefe gentlemen were made the 
 inftruments of a party, and Mr. Pitt may as 
 fairly be accufed of criminality for not keeping 
 Mr. Sheridan or Mr. Richard Burke in the 
 Treafury, as Mr. Haftings has been for de- 
 clining to fend Mr. Briftow and Mr. Fowke 
 to Benares and Oud, at the moment when 
 every newfpaper in Indoftan contained accounts 
 that thefe appointments were made in confe- 
 quence of a determination at home to difmifs 
 Mr. Haftings, and that his difmifllon might 
 hourly be expected. I confefs the idea is fo 
 repugnant to common fenfe, of continuing a 
 man at the head of an empire, and refufing him 
 at the fame time the privilege of appointing 
 thofe who are to fill the firft political flations 
 in it, that I am aftonifhed how a gentleman 
 of Mr. Fox's talents can take that ground. 
 Mr. Haftings ftated it fairly in Bengal. 
 The bill lately pafled has ftated it fairly too. 
 Obedience to orders is pofitively injoined, but
 
 in inftances where orders are difobeyed, the 
 proof of the neceffity for fuch difobedience 
 mud be full, or punifhment will follow. 
 Such was the language of Mr. Haflings. 
 He never expected a repetition of the orders 
 relative to Mr. Briftow and Mr. Fowke. 
 He affigned his reafons for acting as he had 
 done, and, if they were not fatisfadtory, he 
 expected difmiflion himfelf. 
 
 Critical, indeed, was our fituation when this 
 bufinefs was agitated. The Carnatic had juft 
 been invaded : The peace with the Marattas 
 was not concluded ; a French armament was on 
 its way to India ; and Sir Eyre Coote, with a 
 large reinforcement, was on the point of pro- 
 ceeding to Madras. At this moment, Mr. Fran- 
 cis propofed that Mr. Briftow mould be fent to 
 Oud, agreeable to the order of the Directors. 
 1 defy any man living to controvert the reafons 
 affignedby Mr. Haftings, for refufing to carry 
 the order then into execution. Sir Eyre Coote 
 equally felt the impolicy of the meafure, but 
 he had committed himfelf, and therefore agreed 
 to it, wiming Mr. Haftings to adopt fome 
 plan that mould tend to prevent any bad ef- 
 fects from the appointment. Our fituation 
 
 growing
 
 [ i 3 
 
 growing more defperate in India, Mr. Haft- 
 ings recalled both Mr. Briftow and Mr. Fowke. 
 It was hard to bring him to a perfonal conteft 
 with two junior fervants of the Company. 
 Surely in the fuuations they filled, it was fuffi- 
 cient to fay, that having been fent there by his 
 opponents, when party was at the higheft in 
 Bengal, they could not be fuppofed to be his 
 particular choice, though he wifhed to do them 
 no injury, and was defirous of employing them 
 in any other line. The intelligence of the re- 
 moval of thefe gentlemen, arrived in England at 
 the very time* when we were reafonably alarm- 
 ed by the prodigious efforts which France was 
 making to difpoflefs us of India. Lord North 
 was then the Minifter, and Mr. Sulivan the 
 Chairman of the Directors. They had too much 
 good fenfe to think of weakening the Govern- 
 ment of Bengal, at that critical moment, by 
 agitating a perfonal queftion. But though the 
 ftate of India became ftill more defperate, 
 when the Rockingham Adminiftration came 
 in, yet the Seled: Committee, and a bare 
 majority of the Directors, cordially co-ope- 
 rated in bringing forward every meafure that 
 could diminifh the credit of the Government 
 
 * December, 1781. 
 I Of
 
 C 62 ] 
 
 of Bengal, or weaken its exertions for the 
 public fervice. While Mr. Burke did me the 
 honour to examine me on the bufinefs of Mr. 
 Briftow and Mr. Fowke, Mr. Gregory and Sir 
 Henry Fletcher were ordering their reftowation, 
 and cenfuring the conduct of Mr. Haftings in 
 the harflieft language. I think Mr. Fox once 
 obferved, during the late war, that Lord North 
 and Lord Sandwich could not do the bufinefs of 
 France more effectually than they did, had they 
 been bribed to the fervice. I am fure I can ap- 
 ply this remark to the conduct of the Rocking- 
 ham Administration, refpecting India in 1782. 
 It has been infmuated, that Mr. Haftings's 
 motive for difobeying the orders of the Court of 
 Directors, was in order to ftrengthen his Par- 
 liamentary- intereft at home, by providing for 
 Gentlemen who had great and powerful connec- 
 tions here ; but furely there never was a more 
 unfounded charge than this is. Mr. Briftow's 
 connections in England were very powerful. 
 He had two near relations in Parliament, Lord 
 Weftcote and the late General Frafer. He was 
 patronized by Lord North's Adminiflration. 
 Mr. Middleton, on the other hand, was fcarcely 
 known in England except to Mr. Gregory, 
 
 who
 
 C 6 3 ] 
 
 who had taken fo hoftile a part againft the 
 Governor-General : Mr. Briftow came out at a 
 time when his Lordfhip was delirous of fup 
 porting the Governor-General. If Mr. Haft- 
 ings had ftudied to ftrengthen his own inte- 
 reft at home, he could not have done it more 
 effectually than by patronizing Mr. Briftow. 
 
 Mr. Fowke was nearly related to Gentlemen 
 with whom Mr. Haftings had paffed the early 
 part of his life. It was neither for his intereft, 
 nor his eafe to remove him, nor was it probable 
 that he would be in a fituation to waat the 
 fervice of Mr. Markham's friends in England : 
 That Gentleman had been his private fecretary ; 
 he thought him the beft qualified for the reii- 
 dency of Benares, at the very critical minute in 
 which he appointed him : but furely any candid 
 man, who confiders the cafe, will be convinced 
 that Mr. Haftings neither acted from motives of 
 enmity to Mr. Fowke, nor in order to infure 
 the good offices of the Archbifliop of York in 
 Great Britain. I do not know a fingle in- 
 ftance in which Mr. Haftings has attended either 
 t the mean gratification of perfonal refent- 
 ment, or to the eftablifliment of a powerful 
 intereft in England, by the difpofal of patro- 
 nage
 
 [ 64 ] 
 
 age in India. If the conduct and chara&ers 
 of the civil, and military fervants who have been 
 peculiarly employed by him, are fcrutinized, it 
 xvill be found that no man in a public ftation, 
 kas been more fortunate in diftinguiming and 
 employing in the public fervice men of honour 
 and abilities than Mr. Haftings ; and that he has 
 never been at the pains to enquire whether their 
 connections in England were powerful or net *. 
 It is the peculiar fate of Mr. Haftings to be ac- 
 cufed by onefetofmen, of wafting the public 
 money for private purpofes, and by another, of 
 being totally inattentive to the recommendations 
 of thofe who have the power of fupporting him 
 
 at home. 
 
 
 
 In the courfe of the proceedings in Parliament 
 on India affairs, the terms ufurper and delin- 
 quent have been applied to Mr. Haftings ; and 
 
 Mr. 
 
 * To prove this I could bring many inftances. Mr. Shore 
 is one of the number; that Gentleman is called by Mr. Burke 
 a" Creature of the Governor- General," becaufe he was the 
 leading member in the management of the Revenue of Bengal, 
 during the abfence of Mr. David Anderfon. But the truth is, 
 that Mr. Shore had always lived in focial intimacy with Mr. 
 Francis, and was patronized by Mr. Haftings, from the high 
 opinion he entertained of his abilities in the Revenue Line, 
 without the fmalle ft regard to his political opinions, orcormeo
 
 C 65 ] 
 
 Mr. Dundas in particular, has been called upon 
 to proceed againft him as a delinquent. I could 
 wifli the public would attend to a curious tact, 
 which that gentleman ftated in the moft direct 
 and manly terms. He faid, there were gen- 
 tlemen prefent, who knew ihat he had been 
 applied to formerly, to proceed againft Mr. 
 Haftings as a delinquent, but that he had pe- 
 remtorily refuled to do fo ; and for the f :;eft rea- 
 fon in the world, becaufe he did not believe Mr. 
 Haftings was a delinquent, nor had he ever 
 thought him one : That he propofcd his remo- 
 val, from an opinion that he had forfeited the 
 confidence of the native Princes of India, and 
 that it was neceflary, as a ftep preparatory to 
 peace. I can aver, that this is no new idea of 
 Mr. Dundas ; for, upon a former occafion, 
 while the Marratta peace was depending, he de- 
 clared his intention of removing Mr. Haftings 
 by bill ; but he cxprefsly ftated, that it was 
 upon the idea of its being a meafure of expe- 
 diency, and not from an opinion of his delin- 
 quency. It is very neceflary this circumftance, 
 fhould be attended to, becaufe a party in this 
 country have wifhed to fpeak of the :wo Com- 
 mittees, as if they perfectly coincided in their 
 K femiments
 
 [ 66 ] 
 
 fentiments of Mr. Haflings, yet nothing can 
 be more difiimilar than their opinions, and 
 their conduct. Every thing that Mr. Dundas 
 thought Mr. Haflings could not do, he has 
 actually accomplifhed, in fpite of the obftruc- 
 tions which were thrown in his way, by the 
 miferable politics of this country ; fo that every 
 caufe of objection to Mr. Haftings is removed, 
 and it is nodifcredit to Mr. Dundas, to acknow- 
 ledge that he was miftaken, or, that though his 
 reports are fair and impartial, the conclufions 
 he drew from them are contradicted by fubfe- 
 quent events. 
 
 But the Reports of the Select Committee go 
 upon very different ground j they certainly 
 were intended to fix a very great degree of cri- 
 minality upon Mr. Haftings. The eflence of 
 all thefe Reports is contained in Mr. Burke*s 
 printed fpeech of the 2d of December laft, in 
 which that gentleman fairly and fully appealed 
 to the tribunal of the Public, and before the 
 fame refpectable tribunal I alfo appeared. To 
 mere declamation I cannot reply -, but when po- 
 lltive aflertions are made, they arc capable of 
 proof, or contradiction. I have proved, by facts 
 which are not to be controverted, that Mr. Burke 
 
 has
 
 C 6? ] 
 
 has miftated a great variety of fubjectsj amongft 
 the reft may be mentioned " The Rohilla War ;" 
 " the Maratta War ;" " Mr. Haftings's Treat- 
 ment of the Mogul," <f the Vizier, " the Begums 
 of bud ;" ec Difobedience of Orders :" Manage- 
 ment of the Revenues ; the Opium Contract ; 
 and " the Bullock Contract :" I have fully re- 
 plied to, and I have fully refuted all thefe charges: 
 though it is a peculiar hardmip attending Mr. 
 Haftings, that while themoft powerful, and the 
 ableft men in this kingdom have been diligently 
 employed in effecting his ruin, they have de- 
 clared, that his conduct was not the object of 
 enquiry ; and even the Ninth Report, which, 
 from the firft page of it to the laft, (I mean Mr. 
 Debrett's Report) is the moft intemperate libel 
 againft him that ever was publifhed, has the 
 following paflage : " The Reports of your 
 " Committee are no charges, though they may 
 <f poffibly furnim matter for charge." 
 
 Since I am upon the fubject of the Reports of 
 the Select Committee, I cannot avoid taking 
 notice of a circumftance which I have publicly 
 mentioned that the evidence of Lieutenant? 
 Colonel Robert Stuart, a gentleman who had 
 been examined two days by the Select Commit- 
 K 2 tee,
 
 [ 68 ] 
 
 tee, was completely fupprefied. The Tenth 
 / Report was made in order to prove that Mr. 
 Haft ings had been guilty of a breach of public 
 faith, in withdrawing the Company's guarantee 
 from the Begums of Oud, by which means, the 
 Vizier had re-afiumed their Jaghires, and ac- 
 
 / quired poiTeffion of his father's treafures. Upon 
 the fubject of the Begums, I had the honour to 
 be examined, and my evidence is entered in the 
 Appendix to the Tenth Report. Lieutenant- 
 colonel Harper (who quitted India in 1773) was 
 alfo examined, and his evidence is entered. Colo- 
 nel Stuart was alfo examined, who had then juft 
 arrived in England, (February, 1783) and ap- 
 peared peculiarly calculated to give material in- 
 formation, by having commanded a detachment 
 in the Vizier's country ; but not the fmalleft re- 
 ference is made to his evidence in the Report, 
 
 A and if if not entered in the Appendix. In fhort, it 
 remains at this moment amongft the mafs of 
 minutes taken by the Select Committee. 
 
 Colonel Stuart was examined on the ipth and 
 2Oth of February, 1783 ; and in anfwer to the 
 queftions put to him, he faid, that he had fcrved 
 in India for many years, that he had commanded 
 a detachment for ten months hi Rohilcund, that 
 
 he
 
 [ 69 ] 
 
 he never heard complaints of exactions by fepoys 
 or officers in our fervice, from the Zemindars or 
 inhabitants; that he lefc Oud in June, 1781, 
 the cultivation of the country was impaired from 
 the time he firft knew it ; that the Nabob 
 Vizier had complained to Mr. Middleton, that 
 his refources were much decreafed, and that he 
 wifhed to ftrike off the heavy burthen of the Jag- 
 hirdars ; that he thinks Mr. Middleton men- 
 tioned this to him in th* latter end of 17805 
 that it was currently reported and believed, that 
 ever fince a few months after the late Vizier's 
 death (in 1775), both the Begums, and the 
 Nabob's Uncles were all combined in a fcheme 
 againft the Britim intereft : he heard that fomc 
 correfpondence, explanatory of that inimical 
 difpofition, had fallen into our hands : he 
 thinks (in 1777) Zabita Cawn, the fon of Nad- 
 jub Ul Dowlah, fent an ambaffador to the Vizier 
 with a paper, faid to be the original of a confe- 
 deracy entered into by the different Powers of 
 India, to adt in concert with the French, to ex- 
 pel the Britim from India ; and that the Begums 
 and Uncles, his relations, were faid to be con- 
 cerned in it : that this circumftance was told 
 him by the ambafiador of Zabita Cawn ; that he 
 
 does
 
 [ 7 3 
 
 does not know of any aft of hoftility committed ; ; 
 but Nudj'eff Cawn declared his intention of en- 
 tering the Vizier's country in a hoftile manner, 
 and as he commanded the Weftern Province, he 
 took every precaution to fruftrate his intentions : 
 that Nuzeph Cawn never did enter the country 
 in an hoftile manner, as he knows of ; that he 
 does not know the military force of the Begums, 
 but thinks they could not have raifed two regi- 
 ments of fepoys : that the Vizier attributed the 
 decline of his country, to the fpecie being 
 drawn from it; that the caufe of that drain 
 was, the fubfidies paid to the Company ', and the 
 public debts due by the late Vizier to the Com- 
 pany ; and that there was a conjlant flow of trea- 
 fare from Oud to Bengal : that the Vizier did 
 complain of the diftrels brought upon him by the 
 number of troops kept in his country ; and that, 
 in confequence, they were recalled from Rohil- 
 cund and Futtygur; and feveral Englifh gen- 
 tlemen were alfo recalled : Tlat befrft heard of 
 the indifpofition of the Begums to our Government^ 
 a very few months after the death of Sujah Dow~ 
 Iab(m 1775): That he does not know of any 
 Treaty entered into by the Englim to protect the 
 Begums in pofitflion of their property : -~ that 
 i when
 
 [ 7' ] 
 
 when the ambafiador of Zabita Cawn made the 
 communication to him, he patted through his 
 camp, and paid him a complimentary vifit: 
 that he did not communicate this intelligence to 
 Mr. Haftings, as the ambaflador told him it had 
 been communicated to the Refident at Lucknow, 
 which he believed, or he ihould certainly him- 
 felf have fent intelligence of it to the Council 
 General. 
 
 Thefe are fome of the material parts of Colo- 
 nel Stuart's evidence ; and furely it applies infi- 
 nitely more to the fubjecl matter of the Tenth 
 Report, than any part of my evidence, or that 
 of Colonel Harper's, but // was wholly fupprejed. 
 Shall I not then rejoice that a tribunal is efta- 
 bliftied, which will fuperfede this mode of invef- 
 tigation ? The injuftice of the proceeding can 
 only be equalled by its abfurdity, unlefs the fact 
 were really as it is ftated to be in the Ninth 
 Report:, " That the Committee makes no 
 " charge." But is that the cafe ? I appeal to 
 the good fenfe of every man in England to deter- 
 mine that it is not. A committee is appointed, 
 with power to fend for papers, to examine evi- 
 dences, and to draw up Reports. Under thefe 
 powers they examine feveral gentlemen as to a 
 
 particular
 
 C 7* ] 
 
 particular fubject : one of them, an officer of 
 high rank and character, is alked a number of 
 queftions relative to the (late of Oude, and the 
 conduct of the Begums : his replies tend very 
 fully to confirm what Mr. Haftings has afierted, 
 and to juftify his conduct towards thofe ladies: 
 but the whole is fupprefied. From no part of 
 the Tenth Report, could the world fuppofe that 
 there is fuch a man, as Lieutenant-colonel Ro- 
 bert Stuart, in exiftence. But as the Reports are 
 no charges, this is deemed of fmall confequence j 
 and whenever a charge is made, fay the Repor- 
 ters, " It will be at the difcretion of the party 
 " accufed, to call for, and for the difcretion of 
 " the Houfe of Commons to inftitute fuch pro- 
 " ceedings, as may tend finally to condemn or 
 " acquit." 9th Report, page 33. I hope every 
 man of honour will attend to the manner in 
 which this doctrine is applied. 
 
 A Report thus imperfect, thus partial, is fent 
 into the world. The friends of Mr. Haftings 
 are not to reply to it, becaufe " the Committee 
 " make no charge," and his hour of trial is not 
 come : yet every thing that Mr. Fox has faid of 
 Mr. Haflings's conduct to the Vizier and the 
 Begums, he actually drew from this partial 
 
 and
 
 [ 73 ] 
 
 and imperfect Report. How often was it ob- 
 ferved, while his India bill was depending. " If 
 " any man thinks that the moft flagrant enor- 
 * mities have not been committed in India, lee 
 st him look to the Reports upon your table." 
 Such was the language in both Houfes, till the 
 Lord Chancellor, with a dignity and fpirit be- 
 coming his high character, declared, " That to 
 " fuch Reports he would pay as much attention 
 " as to the Hiftory of Robinfon Crufoe." 
 
 There is not a fyllable in the Reports, 
 there was not a fentence uttered while Mr. 
 Fox's bill was before the Houfe of Com- 
 mons, that had a reference to depending 
 events, which has not been contradicted by 
 the lateft advices from India. How much has 
 been faid and written of the miferable ftate of 
 Oud, of the oppreffion the Vizier laboured under 
 from Mr. Haftings, and of his being com- 
 pelled by the Governor General to plunder 
 the Begums. The balance due from the Vizier 
 to the Company, was pronounced to be a defpe- 
 rate debt, and the unfortunate Directors were 
 accufed of audacity for prefuming to include ic 
 in their accounts We now find that the 
 Vizier, his Minifters, and the principal people 
 L of
 
 C 74 ] 
 
 of his court, place the moft implicit reliance 
 on thejuftice and good faith of Mr. Haftings 
 That above eight lacks of rupees of his balance 
 were actually paid in February laft, and un- 
 doubted fecurity given for the difcharge of the 
 whole debt. It is proved, that at the repeated 
 and earned requeft of the Vizier, Mr. Haftings 
 confented to his refumption of the Begum's 
 Jaghires, and that upon his requeft they have 
 fince been reilored to him. We now find that 
 every rupee of the Vizier's debt will be realiz- 
 ed, and without our having recourfe to thofe 
 dreadful means for its recovery which a warm 
 imagination painted in fuch glowing colours, 
 and defcribed as the common mode by which 
 debts were recovered in India. 
 
 It was afferted that in the Maratta peace, \ve 
 had laid the foundation of a new war but will 
 any man now regard fuch an affertion ? Much, 
 was faid of Mr. Haftings' permitting the Vizier 
 to plunder Fyzoolla Cawn, and it was made 
 the fubject of a Report, but the engagement 
 with him has been faithfully obferved, and 
 he has lately applied to Mr. Haftings to aflift 
 him in the fecuring the fuccefBon of his Jag- 
 hire to his eldeft fon In no inftance does it 
 
 it
 
 t 75 3 
 
 it appear, that* we are execrated in India, or 
 that our government is deemed a curfe by the 
 natives Men who know as little of India, as 
 I do of the Orkneys, have repeatedly declaimed 
 upon this fruitful fubjecl:, while the popular 
 prejudices were flrong ; but who is there of 
 any information, who does not know, that from 
 the death of Aurungzebe, to the total deftrudlion 
 of the Mogul empire by the invafion of Nadir 
 Shah, India was a fcene of blood and rapine 
 To that period indeed, a period of near fifty 
 years, many of the defcriptions-that I have heard 
 would in part apply; but are the ^eewrtries v 
 under the immediate management of the Englifh 
 deferted or laid wafte ? Will any man who tra- 
 vels through Bengal and Bahar, ferioufly fay 
 with the compiler of the Ninth Report, that 
 the inhabitants are reduced to the loweft ftatc 
 of depreffion and mifery Yet by fuch flowery 
 declamation were the People of England for a 
 time mifled In all the Reports of the Select 
 Committee, in all thefpecches upon the manage- 
 ment of Indian revenue, not a line or a word 
 
 * Sec Parliamentary Debates while the rejected India bill 
 was depending. 
 
 L 2 has
 
 [ 76 ] 
 
 has appeared in honour of a man who deferves 
 fo much of his country as the late Mr. Cleve- 
 land That gentleman had the glory of fub- 
 duing by mildnefs and humanity a barbarous 
 and favage race of men the inhabitants of 
 the weftern mountains of Bengal Thefe 
 people were not be conquered by force of arms, 
 and they committed continual depredations, 
 plundering the villages on the plains, murder- 
 ing the inhabitants, attacking boats upon the 
 Ganges, and cutting off paffengers from time 
 to time. During the country government 
 many attempts were made, if not for their extir- 
 pation, at leaft for their fubjedion, but they 
 are now become obedient and ufeful fubjefts 
 They cultivate their lands, fubfift upon its pro- 
 duce, and yield a revenue to the Government,. 
 Mr. Cleveland fell a facrifice to his unremitting 
 attention to the office he held, the collector of 
 the revenues of Boglipoor ; and Mr. Haftings 
 has paid the only tribute he could pay to fo 
 valuable a man, by ordering a monument to be 
 ere&ed to his memory, in a country where 
 while living he was fo much efteemed, and 
 where his death is lamented by Europeans and 
 natives of every ranjc. 
 
 Even
 
 [ 77 ] 
 
 Even the merit of Mr, Cleveland could not 
 fecure us from the feverity of Mr. Burke's re- 
 marks j but if he really learnt his leflbn from 
 Mr. Francis *, and fpoke from his works as 
 from a brief, I am fure that gentleman muft have 
 told him, that great as Mr. Cleveland's merits 
 were, he was not the only gentleman in Bengal 
 whofe abilities and integrity would do honour 
 to any fervice in the world. Could Mr. Fran- 
 cis inform Mr. Burke that " Our conqueft 
 " there (in Bengal) is as crude as it was the 
 <c firft day," Impoffible, I think -, and yet 
 Mr. Burke avows not only that he himfelf, but 
 every member of the late Houfe of Commons 
 who learnt any thing good, learnt it from Mr. 
 Francis . 
 
 Much has been faid of the influence Mr. 
 Haflings pofiefies in England ; and that though 
 not perfonally prefentf? he appeared this year 
 in the Houfe of Commons by his reprefenta- 
 
 * This man, whofe deep reach of thought, whofe large 
 legiflative conceptions, and whofe grand plans of policy, make 
 the mod fhining parts of our Report, from whence we have all 
 learned our leflbns, if we have learned any good ones ; this 
 man, from whofe materials thofe gentlemen who have leaft 
 acknowledged it, have yet fpoken as from a brief, &c. 
 t Mr. Francis's fpecch of the zd of July. 
 
 lives.
 
 C 78 ] 
 
 tives. An expreffion of this kind can only be 
 calculated " ad captandum vulguS)' and even 
 there will mifs of its effect j for of the whole 
 number of India gentlemen who fit in Parlia- 
 ment, there is not one (myfelf excepted) in 
 the fuccefs of whofe election Mr. Haftings was 
 in the fmalleft degree interefted. He has not 
 even contributed a {billing towards the expence 
 of the Weftminfter election. There was a 
 time when fpeeches, <l full of pointed fatire," 
 had a very great effect; but Mr. Haftings's 
 character is fortunately now fo far fixed with 
 the Public, that they will require pofitive 
 charges to be brought and fully proved, before 
 they condemn a man who has preferved an env 
 pire to Great Britain. Hitherto every charge 
 againft him has been found to originate in igno- 
 rance, or prejudice. 
 
 I have been much furprifed to hear gentle- 
 men, confeffedly of great abilities, exprefs a 
 wifh that we had never acquired territorial pof- 
 fefllons in India, and to hear them aflert, that 
 we are execrated by the natives ; that our Go- 
 vernment has been a grievance and a curfe to 
 them. It is a fatisfaction to reflect, that we 
 never attempted acts of hoftility until we were 
 
 wantonly
 
 C 79 3 
 
 wantonly attacked. In our progrefs to empire 
 have we been guilty of thofe horrid cruelties 
 which are a difgrace to other European nations, 
 who have acquired kingdoms in India, and 
 America ? Mr. Burke feems to acquit us here ; 
 but he fays, cc It is our protection that deftroys 
 *' India." I never yet met with a native of 
 Bengal or Bahar in the middling or lower clafs 
 of men, who did not declare that he preferred 
 being under the Englilh Government to any 
 other. The fentiment, I believe, is univerfal, 
 except amongft that order of men with whofe 
 advantages, ftations, and views, we muft necef- 
 farily have interfered ; I mean the great Maho- 
 metan officers ; and except we were to expel 
 all the Muffulmen from Indoftan, of what ad- 
 vantage would it be to the Aborigines of the 
 country, that all Europeans were driven out of 
 it ? I know not by what right Tamerlane ac- 
 quired or the defendants of Tamerlane pof- 
 feffed the empire, but by conqueft: they, re- 
 tained it for many centuries. The Mogul em- 
 pire was at length deftroyed by Nadir Shah's 
 invafion. From that period, till the tyrant, 
 Surajah DowlaH, attacked the Britifti factory in 
 Calcutta, we are told by an impartial hifto- 
 
 rian,
 
 r 8 3 
 
 rian *, that " the country was torn to pieces 
 " by civil wars, and groaned under every fpe- 
 " cies of domeftic confufion. Villainy was 
 " practiced in every form \> all law and religion 
 <c were trodden under foot ; the bands of private 
 " friendlhip and connections, as well as of fo- 
 " ciety and government, were broken, and 
 " every individual, as if amidft a foreft of wild 
 " beafts, could rely upon nothing but the 
 " ftrength of his own arms.'* 
 
 Will any man who reads this defcription, 
 and knows any thing of the flate of Bengal un- 
 der the Englifh, feriouily aflert, that our Go- 
 vernment has been a curfe, and that we were ex- 
 ecrated throughout the country ? The Eaft- 
 India Company have obtained no advantages by 
 the acquifition of territory in India ; but great 
 and important have been the benefits refuhing to 
 the State from our Indian poffeffions, in the in- 
 creafe of cuftoms and excife, in the quantity of 
 treafure brought into the kingdom, and by our 
 being enabled to carry on the trade to China 
 without draining this kingdom^of fpecie, which 
 it now could ill afford to part with, and by the 
 
 * Colonel Dow. 
 
 large
 
 C ' ] 
 
 large fums paid at different periods to Govern- 
 ment by the Eaft-India Company. 
 
 It feems, however, now to be allowed, that 
 it would be carrying Quixotifm to too great a 
 length, were we to abandon a country which we 
 have fo nobly ftruggled to preferve; and the 
 next queftion naturally was, What would be the 
 bed mode of government for India ? 
 
 * The plan of the late Miniftry was, to fix a 
 llrong Government at home, to be conftantly 
 under the eye of Parliament, pofiefling complete 
 power both at home and abroad, to make all ap- 
 pointments, and to be looked up to in India as 
 the Government. 
 
 There is a very curious pafiage in the Ninth 
 Report, which, I confefs, furprized me ex- 
 ceedingly when I read it firft: "that a fenior 
 " merchant in Bengal was not a fervant of the 
 " Supreme Council, as Mr. Haftings hazards 
 " to call him, but their fellow fervant." 
 Men, who could for a moment entertain an opi- 
 nion fo abfurd, may well be fuppofed capable 
 
 * Their plan was to eflablifh a board, to confift of feren 
 Perfons, who fliould be inverted with full power to appoint 
 and difplace officers in India, and under whofe confront the 
 whole Government of that country Jhouid be placed. 
 
 Mr. Fox's fpeech, i8th November, 1783. Dcbrett's De- 
 bates, Tol. XII. page 43. 
 
 M <*
 
 [ 82 ] 
 
 of joining in a plan for fixing the government 
 of India, in Parliament-ftreet Weftminfter -, but 
 fuch a Government could not poffibly have 
 lafted fix months : deftroy the energy and the 
 vigour of the Government in India, and you will 
 foon lofe the country. The rejeded plan was 
 admirably adapted for fuch a purpofe. The 
 whole of the reafoning in fupport of this meafure 
 was fo fallacious, that men muft now wonder 
 how it could have been attended to j In truth, 
 the old and wile fyftem of the Company, (under 
 \vhich the Duke of Richmond well obferved, 
 they flou rimed to fo great a degree) would never 
 have been trenched upon, but from a mif- 
 chieVous attempt to extend the power of patro- 
 nage at home. Mr. Pitt has had good fenfe 
 enough to lee this, and virtue enough to provide 
 afitemtdy for the growing evil. In the time of 
 Lord Clive, of Mr. Verelft, and Mr. Cartier, 
 and for the firft thirty months of Mr. Haftings's 
 government, there never exited an idea in Lea- 
 denhall-ftreet of appointing gentlemen abroad 
 to fpecific pofh *. Thofe upon the fpot are the 
 proper judges of merit, and the only way to make 
 
 : * A fecrctary, accountant, and raint-mafler, were appoin- 
 ted from hence to Bengal in former years, and their appoint- 
 jpents occafioned much difcontent in India, 
 
 a Go-
 
 a Government refpected and obeyed, is to have 
 ia its poffeflion the power of reward and pu- 
 nilhment. The Dire&ors referred to themfelves 
 the privilege of appointing civil fervants to their 
 fetdements, but they wifely left it to the Go- 
 vernors and their Council, to employ them. 
 When the regulating bill pafled in 1773, and 
 the Minifter began to tafte the fweets of Indian 
 patronage, the good old rules of the fervice 
 were broken down. Then it was that party, 
 cabal, and intrigue, were felt in every depart- 
 ment of the fervice, both at home and abroad. 
 Then it was that the Governor General of In- 
 xJia was forced into a perfonal conteft with two 
 junior fervants ; and now Mr. Haftings is accu- 
 ied of temerity, for hazarding to call a fenior 
 merchant a fervant of the Supreme Couacil, 
 inftead of their fellow-fervant. 
 
 To complete this fyftem of abfurdity, it 
 was propofed, on the i8th of November, to 
 fix the government of India here. The gen- 
 tlemen abroad would then indeed have been 
 fellow-fervants, but how there could have been 
 vigour in the government, how there could 
 have been obedience to orders, how the army 
 could have been commanded, how the reve- 
 nues collected, how a dominion preferved, even 
 M2 for
 
 C 84 ] 
 
 for fix months, I cannot comprehend. The 
 Minifter of this country, while we could 
 keep India, would have enjoyed a degree of 
 power and pre-eminence hitherto unknown ; 
 fince the whole patronage of the Eaft, as 
 well as an extenfive patronage at home, would 
 have been vefted in his commiffioners. The 
 defect of this fyftem is now fully feen, and 
 was never more forcibly expofed than by Lord 
 Stormont, who voted againft the former bill, 
 in a.fpeech upon Mr. Pitt's bill. His 
 Lordmip obferved, that the way to preferve 
 and to govern India was to have a ftrong 
 government eftablifhed in that country, under 
 the control of a ftronger Government here. 
 By no other fyfiem can India be preferved But 
 was that the fyftem of the compiler of the Ninth 
 Report, or the fyftem which the late Minifters 
 meant to eftablifti ? Can they mean to fix a 
 ftrong government in India, who call a junior 
 merchant the fellow fervant of the Governor 
 General cf India, and accufe the latter of pre- 
 fumption for endeavouring to fupport the dig- 
 nity of his ftation ? The government of India 
 muft be in India, and the fervants of the Com- 
 pany abroad muft look up to the governments 
 
 upon
 
 [" S 3 
 
 upon the fpot But on the other hand, every 
 deviation from orders, every aft of oppre Hon 
 or injuftice, muft be feverely punifhed ; for in 
 proportion as the powers delegated to t e go- 
 vernments are ftrong, and ftrong they muft of 
 neceffity be, in proportion muft be their re- 
 fponfibility But the fpirit of defpotifm at 
 home, and equality abroad which the 'India 
 bill of the late Miniftry meant to eftablifh, was 
 calculated to overthrow the Conftitution of this 
 country, and to deprive us of all we pulTefs 
 in Afia. 
 
 If any thing had been wanting to eftahlifh 
 complete anarchy in Bengal, the bill for the 
 better government of the territorial poffef- 
 fions and dependencies was admirably cal- 
 culated to effect it By one claufe, the Com- 
 pany would have been deprived of a revenue of 
 6oo,oool. a year, collected now without oppref- 
 fion or injuftiee By other c.laufes, innume- 
 rable landholders would have been difpoffefied 
 or fubject to vexatious contefts, and by ano- 
 ther claufe, Englishmen who have ferved their 
 country with honour to themfelves, and ad- 
 vantage to the State, were to be deprived of 
 their franchife, and not permitted to fit for a 
 
 certain
 
 [ 86 ] 
 
 ertain period in the Houfe of Commons. -^ 
 Perhaps this claufe was introduced to prevent 
 Mr, Haftings from contaminating ,a late virtu- 
 ous afiembly on his arrival in England. 
 
 The claufe of Mr. Pitt's bill which obliges 
 every man ferving in India to declare the 
 amount of his fortune has been deemed ^ 
 harm one. It is a facrifice to the dejufion of 
 the moment, I prefume, but if it wete extended 
 to contractors, commiflaries, dealers in loans, 
 and men of various defcriptions here, who have 
 grown rich from the public purfe, during the 
 late calamitous war, I fancy the world would be 
 convinced that more money may be acquired 
 in England in a week, than in India in twenty 
 years. Harfb, however, as this claufe may be 
 deemed, it is mild indeed, compared to that in 
 a rejected bill, which precluded an Engli(hmaa 
 frcm the honour of ferving his country in 
 Parliament, and from the privilege of defending 
 himfelf againft the efforts of ignorance and 
 malice, which I have often feen combined to 
 calumniate men of irreproachable charters. 
 
 Many infmuations have been thrown out, as if 
 Mr. Hailings depended upon the fupp ort of 
 the prefent Minifters, or of thofe poflefifed of 
 
 - (till
 
 ftill greater power than the minifterfi. Thefe 
 ate infmuations only, and are totally unfounded. 
 Mr. Haftings's fupport was from the public at 
 large. There has, indeed, been fome dif- 
 ference in the conduct of the late and the pre- 
 fent Minifters. From what has already pafled, 
 I prefume Mr. Haftings will not now be con- 
 demned unheard, as he would have been laft 
 w jnter, but the prefentminifters are refponfible 
 to the nation, for the good government of In- 
 dia j and if there is any thing in the character, 
 or the conduct of Mr. Haftings which renders 
 him unfit for his ftation, they are bound to re- 
 cal him, and to punilh him. Mr. Haftings 
 has never fhrunk from refponfibility ; he has 
 never attempted, by the low arts of cabal and 
 intrigue, to preferve his fituation, nor has he 
 defcended to the meannefs of deprecating the 
 vengeance of thofe who were inclined, laft 
 winter, to exert their power to the utmoft, in 
 order to crulh him. 
 
 Determined as his Majefty's Minifters were, 
 in 1782, to remove Mr. Haftings, what could 
 have faved him but the high opinion in which 
 his conftituents held him? Did they ad ille- 
 gally or abfurdly, in differing in opinion from 21 
 
 majority
 
 [ 88 ] 
 
 majority of forty-three members of the Houfe 
 Commons ? Will any man of common fenfe be-, 
 lieve, that if at that period, or fince, any one, 
 even the mod minute of. the charges brought 
 againft Mr. Haftings, could have been fubftan- 
 tiated, a bill for his removal would not have 
 been carried without a dificnting voice ? In the 
 rejected bill, was there a claufe for Mr. Haf- 
 tings's removal? Though his fuppofed mif- 
 conduct was flated to have produced the ne- 
 cefiity for fo ftrong a meafure as that confefTedly 
 was, yet the bill actually left Mr. Haftings the 
 Governor General of Bengal, until the fever* 
 mighty monarchs mould determine his fate in 
 clofe divan'; for we have fince been given to un- 
 derftand, (tredat Jud#us!) that it was uncertain 
 whether Mr. Haftings was to be removed or 
 not. 
 
 If any thing were wanting to expofe the 
 fallacious bafis on which the rejected bill was 
 founded, we have ample proof of it in the late 
 advices from India, by which we know that 
 peace and tranquility are reftored to every part 
 of it i and to fecure us in the pofTdTion of that 
 great arm of the empire, we only wanted what 
 I think Mr. Pitt's bill has fully eftabliftied, a 
 
 govern-
 
 C 89 3 
 
 government, and a ftrong government -in India, 
 under the control of a ftill ftronger government 
 at home. 
 
 In the courfe of our ftruggles, we have feen 
 the power of the Government of this country 
 unjuftifiably exerted to remove Mr. Haftings ; 
 and, unfupported by family connections, or Par- 
 liamentary interefl, but by the mere force of 
 perfonal character, he has obtained a complete 
 triumph over his opponents. Neither bribery 
 nor corruption were reforted to, in fupport of 
 him j and however a certain fet of gentlemen 
 may attempt to miflead the public by aflerting 
 again, and again, that the proprietors are the 
 fervants, of the fervants in India, and that the 
 whole body is corrupt ; yet every man of fenfe 
 and obfervation muft treat thefe remafks as 
 childifh and abfurd. The Proprietors have in 
 faft preferved India to Great Britain, as Mr. 
 Dempfter has often declared, who, at the mi- 
 nute the late Miniftry condemned the conduct 
 of the Proprietors, and were themfelves deter- 
 mined to remove the Governor General, pu- 
 blicly defended them in the Houfe of Com- 
 mons ; and aflerted, that he could conceive no 
 aft fo completely abfurd as the removal *f 
 N Mr.
 
 C 90 ] 
 
 Mr. Haftings, during the war would be, unlefs 
 General Eliotc had been fuperfeded in his 
 command at the moment the Spanifli batteriei 
 were playing againil Gibraltar. 
 
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