II 
 
 . 
 i^half oi 
 
 : 
 '
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 A N 
 
 A P PEAL, 
 
 [Price One Shilling and Sixpence.]
 
 A N 
 
 APPEAL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 PEOPLE 
 
 O F 
 
 ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND, 
 
 I 
 
 IN BEHALF OF 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS, E SQi 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for J. DEBRETT, oppofite Burlington- 
 houfe, in Piccadilly. 
 
 MDCCLXXXVJI.
 
 DS 
 f73.5" 
 
 A N 
 
 APPEAL, 
 
 WHEN the ambition of France openly 
 threatened Europe with univerfal md- 
 narchy, the duke of Marlborough turned the 
 tide of fuccefs, and, controlling fortune by ther 
 fuperiority of his genius, feemed to proceed, 
 by a fure march, from fortrefs to fortrefs, to 
 the gates of Paris. But in the midft of this 
 career of profperity and glory, that military 
 ardour and high fpirit of liberty, which had 
 lately fhone forth among all ranks and orders of 
 men in England, was fuddenly exchanged for a 
 rooted averfion to war, an anxious defire of 
 peace, and a fuperflitious dread concerning the 
 B fafety
 
 r ] 
 
 fafety of the church. The public admiration 
 was transferred from the Duke of Marlborough 
 to Dr. Saeheverell ; from the great protector 
 of the liberties of Europe, to a defpicable fire- 
 brand of fedition. And while the Englifh na- 
 tion almoft deified a pragmatical prieft, they 
 leemed, in their undifcerning fury, to demand, 
 as a viilim at his altar, the very man who had 
 raifed the Britifh name to the h : .gheft point of 
 elevation. All our hiftory is indeed full of 
 tranfitions as quick, and of humours as unrea- 
 fonable : but fince the reign of Queen Anne to 
 the prefent times, there was none to be found 
 fo much fitted to excite furprize, regret, and 
 indignation, as the prefent perfecution of the 
 Governor General of Bengal, nearly akin to the 
 Duke of Marlborough, in character, in fituation, 
 and in fate ; except that the Commander in 
 Chief of the confederated armies amafled an 
 enormous fortune ; in which circumftance, too, 
 Mr. Haftings might have eafily refembled Jiirn, 
 if to preferve, fecure, and improve the Britifli 
 dominions and influence in Afia had not been 
 the predominant paiTion of his foul, as he con- 
 ceived it to be the firft duty of his ftation. Cut 
 who can doubt, after the tranquillity enjoyed by 
 fome late culprits at the bar of the Houfe of 
 
 Commons >
 
 C 3 ] 
 
 Commons, and the felicitation of an interview 
 with Major Scott on the part of a certain dif- 
 tinguilhed orator*, that the prudential command 
 of a great fortune, with the aid cf lefs addrefs 
 
 than 
 
 * This tranfaclion was alluded to by Major Scott in his 
 reply to Mr. Sheridan, which produced from Mr. Sheridan 
 a very few words in anfwer : thefe went merely to imply, 
 that Major Scott had acknowledged himfelf miftakeu in his 
 former account of the tranfa&ion. Major Scott may have 
 a very good idea of Indian politics, but he has not fhewn 
 himfelf a match for his opponents in England in point of 
 manoeuvre. To prevent the world, however, from enter- 
 taining an idea that the miftake made by Major Scott did 
 at all affecl the purpofe for which he has at any time al- 
 luded to this tranfa&ion, we mall give the fa& as it is, and 
 leave our readers to draw their own conclufions from it. 
 
 On the i yth of November at night, Mr. Sheridan paid 
 a vifit to a gentleman, who then lived in Berner's ftreet, 
 and was known to have taken a very aftive part in favor 1 
 of Mr. Haftings, in whofe family he had lived in India. 
 This gentleman Mr. Sheridan had not vifited before this 
 night for feveral months, and the intimacy between them, 
 though not broken off perhaps, had long been fufpended. 
 The exprefs avowed purpofe of this vifit, was to talk over 
 the affairs of Mr. Haftings, and it was agreed between this 
 gentleman and Mr. Sheridan, that the former mould call 
 on the next morning upon Major Scott, to communicate 
 what had paffed, and Major Scott was to be dpfired to meet 
 Mr. Sheridan at eleven o'clock that morning, at a third 
 houfe. The communication made by the gentleman v/h 
 B 2 vifccJ
 
 C 4 1 
 
 than Mr. Mailings is allowed to poffefs even by 
 his enemies, might have eafily diverted the 
 arrows of reproach, and fecured an undifturbed 
 retreat from a life worn out in the fervice of 
 
 the 
 
 vifited Major Scott was, as he underftood, that he came to 
 him with the olive branch ; that Mr. Haftings might come 
 home with perfeft fecurity, with his half million, or what- 
 ever might be the amount of his fortune ; that the miniilers 
 had ftrength enough to carry the India bill, but that they 
 knew it would be oppofed at the India Houfe. The con- 
 dition therefore required from Major Scott was, that the 
 friends of Mr. Railings would not join in the oppofition to 
 the bill. In reply to this communication, Major Scott at 
 once faid he would not meet Mr. Sheridan, but that he 
 Ihould go to the gallery of the Houfe of Commons, where he 
 mould hear Mr. Fox himfelf : and he further told the gen- 
 tleman who called upon him, in anfv/er to fome doubts that 
 were expreffed whether Mr. Haftings would come home 
 when recalled, that all the world knew there had been a 
 letter upon the table of the Court of Directors, fmce the 
 month of September, in which he exprefsly defired them 
 immediately to appoint a fuccefTcr to the government of 
 Bengal. The gentleman v/ho waited upon Major Scott 
 further told him, that, if the negocktion came to nothing, 
 no notice was to be taken of any offer of the kind having 
 been made. Mr. Fox made his famous fpeech on that day, 
 the 1 8th of November, in which he grounded the necefiity 
 for his bill upon the mifmanagement of Ivlr. Haftings, and faid 
 4?is whole proceeding was the proceeding of a man who ha^ 
 
 drawn
 
 [ 5 ] 
 
 the public, and full of activity, trouble, and 
 danger ?* That engine of defence he neither 
 poffeffed nor required. His own virtue was 
 the fhield which he oppofed to the fhafts of his 
 
 adverfa'ries, 
 
 drawn the fword, and thrown away the fcabbard. The fol- 
 lowing morning, the if)th, Major Scott, and the friend who 
 had called upon him, met again, when the latter clearly de- 
 clared, that, after Mr. Fox's fpecch, Mr. Sheridan had no 
 right to expet fecrecy from either of them. The prefs was 
 not idle ; every paper teemed with grofs and anonymous abufe 
 ef Mr. Railings, with threats of vengeance, and now and 
 then with fomething like a promife of favour, if the friends 
 of Mr. HafKngs would be lefs active. In anfwer to one 
 of thefe paragraphs, Major Scott, not like a Ikulking af- 
 fafiin, who fcabs in the dark, but openly, and with his name 
 at full length to the affertion, publicly avowed, on the 2yth 
 of November, ten days after Mr. Sheridan had vifited his 
 friend, that he, Major Scott, "rejected the offer of an aft of 
 " ' oblivion for his principal, provided he vjould remain Jiient 
 " during the prefent attack upon tbe Eaft India Company.'* 
 This avowal, written before the Committee of Proprietors at 
 the India Houfe, and inferted in the Morning Chronicle, 
 was never anfwered; nor was the gentleman whom Mr. 
 Sheridan had viiited, or Major Scctt, taxed with a breach 
 of fecrecy. 
 
 In the month of March, 1786, two years and four 
 months afterwards, Major Scott again alluded to the cir- 
 cumilanpe in the Houfe of Commons. The allufion occa- 
 fioned a meeting between Mr. Sheridan and the gentleman 
 
 whom
 
 C 6 ] 
 
 adverfaries, in whom difappointed hopes, as the 
 world conjectures, converted affe&ed indignation 
 into real refentment. And the fame magna- 
 nimity which difdains the compromifes of con- 
 fcious demerit will carry him triumphant through 
 all his troubles. 
 
 The reafonings of his accufers, diverted of 
 all adventitious ornaments, bear a nearer re- 
 
 whom he had vifited, and the confequence of that meeting 
 was, a perfeft agreement between Mr. Sheridan and that 
 gentleman, that Major Scott had miftaken both the extent 
 of the offer that was made, and the ground upon which it 
 was made : but admitting the faft, as it mufl be admitted 
 where two gentlemen only were prefent during a converfa- 
 tion, and agree exadly as to the particulars of it, what 
 does the admiffion amount to ? Not that Mr. Sheridan did 
 not pay that gentleman a vifit the night before the day on 
 which Mr. Fox brought in his bill not that Mr. Sheridan 
 did not agree to meet Major Scott the next morning not 
 that Mr. Sheridan did not fay Mr. Haftings might come 
 home with fecurity, Sec. It merely went to this, Major 
 Scott was miftaken, firft, in believing that Mr. Sheridan's 
 offer was made with the knowledge of Mr. Fox, and all the 
 confidential men belonging to the Duke of Portland ; and, 
 fecondly, he was miftaken in fuppofing that the condition re- 
 quired from him was that he and his friends fhould not op- 
 pofe the India bill ; whereas, in faft, all Mr. Sheridan 
 wanted to know was this, whether the man v.-ho had written 
 for a fucceflbr would come borne, if recalled under Mr. Fox't 
 Bill? 
 
 femblance
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
 femblance to the verbal difputes ofilogicians 
 and cafuifb than the folid arguments of legifla- 
 tors and ftatefmen ferioufly concerned for the 
 welfare of the republic. In the whole compafs 
 of morality there are two things principally to 
 be confidered : Firft, what are the fentiments 
 and what the tenour of conduct that denomi- 
 nates one action, or courfe of actions, virtuous, 
 and the contrary vicious ? And, fecondly, by 
 what principle or law is virtue recommended 
 and authorized, and vice ftigmatized, and 
 reprobated ? Concerning the laft of thefe 
 queftions, metaphyficians have differed, and will 
 for ever continue to differ ; but with regard to 
 the firft and moft important, they are all of them 
 very nearly, if not entirely agreed. If we ex- 
 amine all the writers on the law of nature, from 
 Plato to Pay ley, we fhall find, that whatever 
 the theories are with which they fet our, they 
 all of them terminate in public utility and 
 advantage. They affign, as the ultimate rea- 
 fon for every rule which they eftablifh, the 
 neceffities and the convenience of mankind, 
 and readily admit that the firft and funda- 
 mental law in all political conftitutions is the 
 prefervation of fociety *. On 
 
 * The great and good Mr. Locke, the afTertor of the 
 rights, and the expofitor of the nature of man, in what he
 
 On the profpeft of war in general, it has uni- 
 formly been the practice of all countries, on 
 probable grounds of fufpicion, of which the exe- 
 cutive branch of the legiflature always exercifed 
 
 thf 
 
 writes on civil government, fays, that tl Where the le- 
 
 " giilative and executive power are in difunft hands (as 
 
 " they are in all moderated monarchies and well-framed 
 
 *' governments) , there the good of the fociety requires that 
 
 " feveral things mould be left to the direction of him 
 
 * that has the executive power: for the legiflators not 
 
 *' being able to forefee, and provide by laws, for all 
 
 *' that may be ufeful to the community, the executor of 
 
 the laws, having the power in his hands, has, by the com- 
 
 ' mon law of nature, a right to make ufe of it for the good 
 
 " of fociety in many cafes where the municipal law has 
 
 *' given no direction, till the legiflature can be conveni- 
 
 ' ently aflembled to provide for it. Many things there 
 
 are which the law can by no means provide for, and thofe 
 
 " muft neceiTarily be left to the difcretion of him that has 
 
 " the executive power in his hand, to be ordered by him 
 
 " as the public good and advantage {hell require : nay, it is 
 
 " fit, that the laws themfelves mould in fome cafes give 
 
 <f way to the executive power, or rather to this fundamen- 
 
 " tal law of nature and government, that, as much as may 
 
 '* be, all the members of the fociety are to be preferved : 
 
 " for fince many accidents may happen wherein a ftrift 
 
 " and rigid obfervance of the law may do harm (as not to 
 
 f pull down an innocent man's houfe to flop the fire when 
 
 *' the next to it is burning), and a man may come fome- 
 
 " iiffies,
 
 [ 9 1 
 
 the prerogative of judging, to fecure the perfons 
 of individuals thought to ' be difaffected to the 
 ftate, by which great public calamities are pre- 
 vented. On the fame ground of public neceflity, 
 villages are deftroyed, left they fhould afford fhel- 
 ter to the enemy. It is true, that in fuch cafes 
 reparation is made to the inoffenfive inhabitants : 
 ahd accordingly reparation has been made, not- 
 withftanding the indications of an hoftile difpofi- 
 tion to the Englilh, on the part of the PrincefTes 
 
 " times within the reach of the law, which makes no dif- 
 " tin&ion of perfons, by an aftion which may deferve re- 
 " ward and pardon. This power to al according to dif- 
 tf cretion for the public good, without the prefcription of 
 " the law, and fometimes even againlt it, is that which is 
 <e called prerogative, and, whilft employed for the benefit 
 " of the community, and fuitably to the trufts and ends of 
 <f government, is never queftioned; for the people are 
 " very feldom or never fcrupulous or nice in the point. 
 " He that will look into the hiftory of England^ will find 
 " that prerogative was always largeft in the hands of our 
 " wifeft and bed princes; becaufe the people, obferving 
 " the whole tendency of their actions to be the public 
 f< good, contefted not what was done without law to that 
 " end : or if any human frailty or miilake (for princes are 
 " but men made as others) appeared in fome fmall declina- 
 " tions from that end, yet it was vifible that the main of 
 " their conduct tended to nothing but the care of the pub- 
 ' lie." 
 
 C of
 
 r i ] 
 
 bf Qude, by Mr. Haftings, as far as the refump- 
 tion of their jaghires is concerned. A pro- 
 vifion was made for replacing their income at 
 the exact rate at which it had ftood in their own 
 eftimate, while they held the jaghires, by making 
 it the condition of the refumption, that they 
 Ihould receive a penfion equal to the amount of 
 thofe pofTeflions, in equal monthly payments > 
 and thefe, for the fulleft fecurity, were made 
 payable from the produce of the Company's 
 r.fiignments. Has the Britifli parliament, in 
 which we find the men who held in their hands 
 the reins of government, during that interefting 
 conflict with fo many nations whole afflicting con- 
 fequences we all feel and deplore, and which has 
 given birth to fo many charges and fo much re- 
 crimination, has the Britifh Miniftry and Par- 
 liament in all cafes made compenfation to thofe 
 who have fuffered in the caufe of England, as 
 ample, as equal, as permanent and fecure as that 
 which the juftice of Mr. Haftings has granted to 
 the Princeffes of Afia? The American Loyalifts, 
 on the very fcene, braved the fury of prevailing 
 rebellion with an intrepidity and conftancy that 
 reproached that timorous and temporizing policy 
 in Adminiftration, that indolence and infatuation 
 
 in
 
 in the fervants of the crown both by fea and land, 
 and that cruel rage of faction, which impeded 
 the wheels of a weak government, in more forci- 
 ble ftrains than the moft piteous complaints that 
 could be poured forth before a generous people. 
 But what pen or tongue can defcribe the cala- 
 mities which attended, and the horrors which 
 followed on the iflue of their noble conflict? 
 In what pathetic accents might not the inimitable 
 eloquence of Sheridan and Burke reprefent the 
 difconfolate widow, fitting in folitary places, 
 mourning an hufband flain, an infant loft * ! 
 Or, if in the varying and fudden emo- 
 tions incident to the impaflioned foul, grief 
 
 " * She weepeth fore in the night, and her tears are on her 
 '-' cheeks : among all her lovers there is none to comfort 
 " her : all her friends have dealt treacheroufly with her, 
 " they are become her enemies. She is in bitternefs, when> 
 ' in the days of her affliction and of her miferies, me re- 
 " membered the pleafant things me had in the days of old, 
 " when her people fell into the hands of the enemy and 
 " none did help her : when the comforter that mould re- 
 " lieve her foul is far from her j when her children are de- 
 " folate becaufe the enemy prevailed ; when the children 
 " and the fucklings fwoon in the ftreets of the city, and fay 
 " to their mothers, where is corn and wine ? For they 
 " fwooned as the wounded in the ftreets of the city, and 
 " their foul wqs poured forth into their mothers bofom." 
 
 C a at
 
 [ 3 
 
 at the forrows of our fellow fubjefts fhould &e 
 converted into indignation at the caufes from 
 whence they fprung, what field for invective to. 
 the thunder of Fox ! and what profound filence 
 in the liftening fenate ! while he devotes to de- 
 ftruction the authors of fuch calamities, and in 
 the heat of paflion, which throws all artifice at a 
 diftance, almoft confeffes that the misfortunes of 
 the Loyalifts are not wholly owing to the errors 
 and the felfifh views of Adminiftratipn. 
 
 Amidft fuch candour and fmcerity of fenti- 
 ment, as fuch a fcene in the Houie of Com- 
 mons would infpire, could not all the logical 
 diftin&ion of Mr. Pitt find fome precedent or 
 pretext for ranking the mifconduct of Mr. Ha- 
 ftings, and the fufferings of women who have 
 been reduced to the necefiUy of accepting a 
 yearly penfion from their fon, inftead of a landed 
 cftate; might not, I fay, the fubtlety of Mr. Pitt 
 find, if he pleafed, fome reafon for ranking the 
 rnifcondu<5tofMr. Haftings, and the grievances 
 of the Begums, in an order inferior to the enor- 
 mities that difgraced different parties in the con- 
 duct of the American war, and the cruel cala- 
 mities that afflifted and ftill afflid the loyal fub- 
 jefts of preat Britain acrofs the Atlantic ? Does 
 the pittance allowed by Government as an in- 
 
 ^emnification
 
 [ 13 ] 
 
 damnification to the Loyalifts bear any propor- 
 tion to the income continued to the Begums? 
 Ladies fecluded from the world in the recefles of 
 a feraglio, and in whofe hands political power 
 and importance ferved only, by nourifhing a fpirit 
 of ambition, to diflblve the ties of blood, and to 
 embitter the fallen ftate of their family by do- 
 meftic difcord? Far different from theirs is the 
 condition of the difperfed families of the 
 Loyalifts ! Aged parents, accuftomed to receive 
 their kindred and friends with plenty and hofpi- 
 tality, now in the character of petitioners for 
 fome provifion againft the extremity of want for 
 themfelves and their children $ and the tender 
 fex ftruggling by every effort to unite that deli- 
 cacy and dignity of fentiment in which they have 
 been bred, with the means of felf-prefervation ! 
 "While fuch objects, related to us by blood, by 
 language, manners, and religion, by friendfhip 
 ill-requited on our part, and fond confidence 
 mifplaced on theirs j while fuch objects prefent 
 themfelves to our view, whence all this gallantry 
 to Bow Begum, and the women of the Harara 
 of Sujah ul Dowlah ? 
 
 In the relation that fubfifts between fovereigns 
 and their fubjects, if allegiance is implied on the 
 pne part, protection is prefumed on the other. 
 
 The
 
 [ 14 ] 
 
 The Loyalifts, therefore, if the affairs of ftate, 
 feven on the greateft emergency, are to be fquared 
 by the abftracted accuracy of eternal juftice and 
 truth, have an undoubted right to an abfolute 
 reftitution of all they have loft, and reparation, 
 as far as that is poflible, for all they have fuffered. 
 But is it argued that full reftitution as well as 
 complete reparation to the unfortunate fubjedts of 
 Britain in America is impofiible ? Then, it is 
 admitted that political exigencies may not only 
 fufpend, but fuperfede the execution of juftice. 
 Under this conviction, then, let the candid mind 
 judge of the condufc of Mr. Haftings refpecting 
 the Begums of Oude and the Rajah of Benares. 
 
 It is a matter of notoriety, that by the example 
 and at the inftigation of the RajahCheit Sing, the 
 Zemindarof Benares, the inhabitants of thatdiftrict 
 revolted from our government, and continued in a 
 ftate of rebellion from the 22d of'Auguft to the 
 2 2d of September, 1781. D uring that fhort but 
 important period in which Mr. Haftings was con- 
 fined to the Fortrefs and Plain of Chunar, and in 
 a fituation which in the apprehenfion of many 
 men portended certain deftruction to himfelf and 
 his fmall party, the Begums of Fyzabad united 
 their authority and influence to extend and ag- 
 gravate the difficulties of the Englifh. Circular 
 
 letters
 
 [ S 1 
 
 letters were written to the Zemindars of Oude, 
 inciting them to rebellion ; rewards were pro- 
 claimed for the heads of Engliih officers and 
 foldiers ; a general revolt enfued, of which their 
 agents were the principal leaders ; the two chief 
 eunuchs and confidential fervants of the younger 
 Begum openly levied troops in the great fquare 
 of the city, for the avowed fervice of Cheit Sing 
 againfl the Englilh, which were employed by "the 
 Rajah in his battles againft us. Thefe facts have 
 been proved by the depofitions of Lieutenant 
 Colonel Hannay, Major John Macdonald, Cap- 
 tain John Gordon, and many other witnefles, 
 taken before Sir Elijah Impey, at Lucnow and 
 Chunar, within three months of the time in 
 which the events had pafled. Thefe, with other 
 facts, are urged by Mr. Haftings in defence not 
 only of a general refumption of the eftates, but 
 alfo of the treafures in the pofTeffion of the Be- 
 gums, at the requeft of their fon and grandfon, 
 the Nabob Affoph ul Dowlah, to whom they 
 belonged by the right of hereditary fucceflion, 
 and without the aid of which he could not 
 fulfil his engagements to the Eaft India Com- 
 pany, which were abfolutely neceflary, by fup- 
 porting their, to maintain his own authority. 
 In oppofition to the truth of thefe facts, the 
 
 accufers
 
 accufers of Mr. Haftings enter into a long and 
 intricate train of realbnings, conjectures, im- 
 pofmg afibciations of ideas, witticifms, hyperbo- 
 lical expreflions, and even appeals to the majefty 
 and juftice of Heaven -, fhifting the ground on 
 which the general iflue of the queftion concern- 
 ing the merit or the demerit of Mr. Haftings is to 
 be refted, juft as it fuits their purpofe. 
 
 i . At one time they demand legal evidence 
 for the truth of what Mr. Haftings advances 
 in his own vindication ; and at another, when 
 that evidence is adduced, they endeavour to 
 turn the necelTary fteps by which it was obtained 
 into ridicule, and to convert them into arguments 
 of confcious guilt. 
 
 2. If the Governor reafbns on the invariable 
 principles of human nature, they decry vague 
 conjecture, and are not fatisfied with any argu- 
 ments not founded on folid facts; if facts are 
 produced, they affirm, that thefe could not have 
 happened, as they appear to them to be con- 
 trary to the general principles of human nature. 
 
 3. They pervert even the fagacity of the Go- 
 vernor General to their purpofes. They fufpect 
 and condemn him for acting from the convictions 
 of his underftanding, even when thefe were juftified 
 by fubfequent events, and where the conduct to 
 
 which
 
 [ '7 ] 
 
 which they led was indilpenfably necefiary to 
 the falvation of the Englifh power in Afia. 
 
 4. If he ufes rigorous meafures, he is cenfuredj 
 but if, towards the fame perfons in the fame cir- 
 cumftances, he ufes lenity and indulgence^ he is 
 alfo accufed. 
 
 5. If he takes Ihelter in the general principles 
 of jurifprudence, they object to general quef- 
 tions and confiderations on a complicated fubject - t 
 if he enters into a detail of facts, and fhews that 
 fuch was the ftate of affairs, that no other mea- 
 fures than thofe adopted could have reftored and 
 fecured the public fafety, they drag him from the 
 field of battle into the monaftic cell, array him in 
 the habit of an Auguftin Friar, and try him by 
 laws which, though fublimated from a congeries 
 of facts in the imaginations of metaphyficians, 
 cannot in all cafes be reduced to practice, con- 
 fiftently with the great ends of political fociety. 
 
 6. To all thefe inftances of prejudice and e- 
 gregious injuftice they add the enormity of re- 
 ducing to the meafure of the Britifh laws and 
 conftitution, the adminiftration of a magiftrate 
 who had been fent in the name of his country to 
 govern a people in fentiments, manners, and 
 modes of life fo different from our own, that our 
 laws and cuftoms are their abhorrence ; in cir- 
 
 D cumilances
 
 [ 18 ] 
 
 cumftances of unparallelled difficulty and dan- 
 ger, and at a time when the projects for the go- 
 vernment of India, formed at home, were perpetu- 
 ally changing, and every packet from England to 
 Bengal carried out orders, not only contradictory 
 to preceding orders, but inconfiftent with them* 
 felves, and the whole taken not feverally, but in 
 conjunction, impracticable, 
 
 Thefe are the charges which I bring before the 
 people at large againft the accufers of Mr. Haf- 
 tings j and on all of thefe I proceed farther to 
 fpeak in their order. 
 
 Mr. Sheridan not only alledged that there was 
 no legal evidence of the PrincefTes of Oude be- 
 ing in a ftate of rebellion, but that there were no 
 fair prefumptions of their delinquency, or that 
 they entertained hoftile defigns againft theEnglilh. 
 To reports and hearfays, even in circumftances 
 full of alarm, he paid no manner of regard. 
 Now, if the chief magiftrate or governor of a pro- 
 vince is not juftifiable in exerting the power com- 
 mitted to him for crufhing the infancy of a rebel- 
 lion before he has legal proofs of its exiftence, 
 why does Mr. Sheridan attempt to throw 
 odium and ridicule on the Governor General for 
 doing that which he himfelf requires, and what 
 
 the
 
 C '9 3 
 
 the laws of England would have prefcribed in any 
 fimilar cafe ? That is, ufmg the beft evidence 
 that could be obtained, and giving it the beft 
 pofTible fanction. Can that be ridiculous which 
 is wife and necefTary ? If it can, then ridicule is 
 not a proof that the conduct of Mr. Haftings, 
 in taking the evidence in queftion before the firft 
 Britifh judge in India, was unnecefiary: if it 
 cannot, and that Mr. Sheridan fhall contend 
 that the conduct of Mr. Haftings and Sir Elijah 
 Impey, in collecting evidence that a rebellion, 
 though in its firft ftage, exifted in the province 
 of Oude, as well as in that of Benares, furnifhed 
 real and genuine matter of ridicule, then was not 
 their conduct neceflary and proper j and a cafe 
 may exift when the man in whofe hands his 
 country entrufts her diftant and deareft interefts, 
 may act in difcharge of his truft without obferv- 
 ing legal forms. And, if this be fo, it muft be 
 admitted, that, in proportion as Mr. Sheridan 
 was fuccefsful in his endeavours, which in reality 
 formed no inconfiderable portion of his fpeech, 
 to throw ridicule on the Governor General and 
 Chief Juftice of Britifh India, in that proportion 
 exactly does he vindicate the conduct of Mr. 
 Haftings; if, in over-awing and checking the 
 beginning of commotion, he ftepped beyond the 
 D 2 caution
 
 caution of an Attorney, and, afluming the free- 
 dom of an honeft man, acted up to the character 
 with which he was inverted. In truth, it appears 
 to the common fenfe of mankind, as it did to 
 Mr. Haftings himfelf, that an exceffive anxiety 
 about legal evidence, in the circumftances in 
 which be was deftined to act, or his country to 
 fuffer, would indeed have juftly feemed an object 
 of ridicule. He did what a due regard to pru- 
 dence on the one hand, and decorum on the other, 
 naturally dictated to a firm and difcerning mind. 
 He authenticated his proofs before a Britifh ma- 
 giftrate, and chiefly by Britifh fubjects. And 
 here it is to be obferved, that if Mr. Haftings 
 had been confcious of any degree of guilt, or 
 improper bias on his mind) he would naturally 
 have been fedulous to heap proof upon proof 
 of his innocence: dignity of mind would have 
 fhivjnk before an apprehenfion of danger, and the 
 anxiety of the criminal would have been a plen- 
 tiful fource of the darkeft fufpicions that could 
 poflibly fpring up in an imagination fertile even 
 to excefs, and which can fupply in abundance 
 theories and conjectures to cover and protect 
 whatever doctrine or fact he chufes to eftablifh. 
 The gentleman to whom I allude I- firmly be- 
 lieve to be naturally humane, benevolent, and 
 
 juftl
 
 juft i but the fmeft genius and the moft gene- 
 rous difpofition is not unufually found in con- 
 junction with an irritability of temper which 
 magnifies its object. And when once the will 
 begins thus to influence the judgment, fertility 
 of invention, inftead of being a lamp of light, 
 becomes an ignis fatuus that leads into error. 
 It will never be forgotten, while the prefent im- 
 peachment fhall remain on our records, that the 
 apologift ofPowel and Bembridge was the accufer 
 of WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 But to return to Mr. Sheridan. Was it na- 
 tural, decorous, and proper, if he either believed 
 that Mr. Haftings deferved bonds, imprifon- 
 ment, or death, or hoped to make it appear that 
 he did, to let the Houfe at every turn of his 
 reafoning into a roar of laughter, and to convert 
 a criminal trial into a fcene of amufement ? 
 However natural it may be for Mr. Sheridan to 
 turn tragedy into comedy, it was as unfair as it 
 was unnatural, to pour forth on the object of his 
 arraignment at once the torrent of ridicule and 
 of inventive : for I fear that not a few of his 
 audience bellowed, as a reward on his wit and 
 humour, what they could not concede to the 
 force of his arguments. The indecent plaudits 
 heard at the conclufion of his humorous ha- 
 rangue,
 
 rangue, difgraced the aflembled fenate ; though, 
 indeed, they were fit enough expreflions of that 
 fpecies of fatisfaction which we derive from A 
 SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL. 
 
 Very different from that Jupplofio pedis which 
 was practifed not by the orator, but the judges, was 
 the deportment of the gallery, in which different 
 individuals, when Mr.Pitt declared himfelf againft 
 Mr.Haftings, expreffed their concern and furprize 
 in involuntary exclamations, which of courie 
 incurred a rebuke from the Speaker. The fpec- 
 lators of what paired in the Houfe below, were 
 not fo much touched with the humour of Mr. 
 Sheridan, as with indignation that fuch talents 
 fhould be mifpent in fuch a caufe. 
 
 There was nothing in the teftimonies of dif- 
 ferent gentlemen in the fervice of the Company 
 in favour of Mr. Haftings impoflible, nothing 
 inconfiftent, nothing contradicted by oppofite 
 evidence : but it was alledged that what they af- 
 firmed was improbable, and that they were un- 
 der the influence of Mr, Haftings, by whom 
 they had either been obliged, or from whom 
 they expected future favours. There was no- 
 thing advanced againft the evidence in proof of 
 the rebellious defigns at Fyzabad that would be 
 fuftained as a bar to its validity in an ordinary 
 
 court
 
 court of juftice. But certain country gentlemen, 
 and others aflembled in the Houfe of Commons, 
 under the aufpices of a rector of an univerfity *, 
 a very witty author for their principal, and a 
 ftudent from Cambridge for their regius profeffor, 
 undertook to invalidate it on the moral prin- 
 ciples of the human mind. They objected to 
 general reafoning, and required pofitive proofs : 
 pofitive proofs being brought, they return to 
 general reafoning on the nature of man, and the 
 motives that influence h'is conduct in different 
 fituations. Having returned a fecond time to 
 this ground -, on this ground, in the name of 
 the God of Truth, let the difpute be decided. 
 
 It is not credible, fay they, that an infurrec- 
 tion Ihould be raifed, or a war meditated againft 
 the Englifh, whofe power had been fo recently 
 and vifibly difplayed in dethroning or refloring 
 princes, and exterminating nations, by two weak 
 women fecluded from the world in the inmoft 
 receffes of an Eaftern feraglio. Is it then by 
 bodily ftrength and perfonal prowefs, as in die 
 favage ftate of fociety, that either kings or 
 queens wage war in Afia or in Europe ? Was it 
 of any confequence in the confederate war, whe- 
 
 * Mr. Burke is or lately was reftor of the univerfity of 
 Glafgow, 
 
 ther
 
 [ 24 3 
 
 thcr the Sovereign of Great Britain, or, in the 
 laft Turkifh war, whether the Sovereign of 
 Rufiia, was of the mafculine or feminine gen- 
 der ? But the very circumftance of their deep 
 retirement, and the delicacy of oriental manners, 
 afforded a fecurity to their perfons, which did 
 more than counterbalance the want of manly 
 vigour. What opinion can our orators enter- 
 tain of the underftandings of thofe whom they 
 thus angle and inveigle with the illufions of 
 puerile fancy ? It was not the fex, nor the age 
 of the Begums that Mr. Haftings was to confider, 
 but the numbers of men that were at their devo- 
 tion ; the prevalence and ftrength of the prin- 
 ciple that might unite thefe in action j the re- 
 Iburces that might enable them to elude our 
 forces; to prolong the war, to take advantage of 
 the favour, and to weary out by perfeverance 
 the adverfity of fortune ; and, above all, their 
 difpofition to revolt, and the circumftances that 
 might encourage them to excite rebellion, 
 
 Whoever imagines that by all the mildnefs we 
 have mixed, or that it is pofTible for us to mix 
 with our tyranny over the natives and princes of 
 Afia, we fhall be able to gain their confidence 
 and aiTe&ion, is egregioufly miftaken. What- 
 ever aromaticks we may infufe in their bitter cup, 
 
 the
 
 - the bitter tafte will ftill fo far prevail as to induce 
 a ftrong defire of cafting it from them whenever 
 they can : and the greater the hope of being able 
 to do fo, the more ardent alfo will be the defire. 
 It is a property in human nature, that any emo- 
 tion which attends a paflion is eafily converted 
 into it, though in their natures they be originally 
 different, and even contrary to each other. 
 Hence hope is able not only to inflame the defire 
 of obtaining any particular object, but alfo to 
 excite anger againft theperfon who with-holds it, 
 or to heighten k where it was before -hand the 
 predominant paflion j agreeably to that faying 
 of the poet Virgil, Jpes addita Jufcitat iras. To 
 govern reduced provinces, efpecially fuch as are 
 remote from the feat of government, by flacken- 
 ing the curb of power, and granting a few indul- 
 gencies to a fubjected people, imperious na- 
 tions have always found to be difficult, and foe 
 the moil part impofiible. After what has fo re- 
 cently paffed in America and in Ireland, we can- 
 not be at a lofs to judge of the effects of partial 
 conceffion. Every degree of liberty indulged to 
 men tends to produce at once a defire, and 
 a fenfe of their natural right to enjoy it in its full 
 extent. 
 
 Mr. Francis faid, that it was through the old 
 E Begum
 
 Begum that the right of dominion and property 
 in Oude defcended, fhe being the daughter 
 and only heir of the antient Soubah. This 
 Princefs, he added, was in fact, at leaft in 
 right, the real Sovereign of Oude. She is al- 
 lowed to be a woman of an high Ipiritj and her 
 pride is naturally heightened by the recollection 
 of her anceftry, and of former times -, fhe, there- 
 fore, confidered the Englifh as the opprefTors of 
 her family, and the ufurpers of its inheritance. 
 The refentment which fhe naturally entertained 
 againit our nation, there was reafon to dread, would 
 be inflamed by the hope of gratification. She was 
 not uninformed of the fituation of affairs in the 
 weftern world. The crowns of that monarch, 
 whofe power fhe had long equally dreaded and 
 detefted, feemed now to totter on his head; and 
 that of America had already fallen. The 
 French, the Spaniards, theDutch,the three greateft 
 maritime powers in the world next to ourielves, 
 and whofe ftrength was but too well known in 
 the ea,ft, prefied with their united weight on the 
 Englilh, and the ftandard of revolt began to be 
 railed in Benares. In fuch circumftances what 
 confidence could Mr. Haftings repofe in the at- 
 tachment of the high-fpirited Begum, or what 
 #1 her numerous fubjedts I Mankind are governed
 
 C *? 1 
 
 by opinion; and the opinion by which they are 
 governed is two-fold: an opinion of intereft, 
 and an opinion of right. Ideas of right have an 
 influence on the minds of men which have been 
 found, in fome inftances, to prevail over thofe 
 of intereft. Hence in all nations, and in none 
 more than in Great Britain, Chiefs have been 
 foundj who, in the full poffeflion of their privi- 
 leges and fortune, have flown to the ftandard of 
 exiled princes, followed by bands of voluntary 
 vafTals. But in Afia, where the reverence to 
 royal blood is ftronger than in Europe, and 
 where the oppreflions of Europeans, compared 
 with thofe the people fuffer under their native 
 princes, are greater -, in Afia, where all ranks of 
 men are divided againft us by an opinion both 
 of right and intereft, and ready to ftart into a 
 pofture of hoftility on every occafion where there 
 is. any profpecl of fuccefs, and in circumftances 
 fo full of alarm, why fhould Mr. Haftings deem 
 it incredible that the Princefles of Oude Ihould 
 ]oin the general confpiracy of the world againft 
 Great Britain, or feek for theories by which he 
 might reconcile hoftile appearances with bene- 
 volent intentions ? Is not our government over 
 the natives of India, whatever palliatives we may 
 apply or project, in reality defpotic ? ' Is not the 
 E 2 firft
 
 firft principle of defpotifm, jealoufy of its fub- 
 je&s ? Was there no ground of jealoufy, jea- 
 loufy heightened beyond the pitch of its ufual 
 vigilance, in the circumftances in which the Go- 
 vernor General of Bengal was placed towards 
 the clofe of the year 1781 ? If there was, is his 
 country, which his fervices have fo eminently 
 contributed to faye, to make no allowance for 
 the force, for the violence with which reports of 
 military preparations muft have fallen on a mind 
 anxious for the prefervation of all that was com- 
 mitted to the exertion of its powers ? On the 
 one hand, it was at leail probable that a revolt 
 was begun in the province of Oude as well as in 
 Benares, and more than probable that it was 
 intended : on the other, it was poffible that the 
 reports concerning the orders and defigns of the 
 Begums might be falfe. In this dilemma, ye 
 accufers of Mr. Haftings, what would ye have 
 done ? If his fears fhould prove to be ground- 
 lefs, and that, in feizing the refources of the Be- 
 gum, he fliould commit an injury, that injury 
 might afterwards be repaired ; but if, on the, 
 prefumption that their intentions, notwithftand- 
 ing all appearances to the contrary, were pacific, 
 he fliould forbear to act as he did, the empire 
 of Great Britain in the Eaft might be loft. 
 
 In
 
 In our wars with the Houfe of Bourbon, have 
 we not been accuftomed, on the appearance of 
 hoftilities on the part of that kingdom, to antici- 
 pate an attack by making one ? Is this conduct 
 to be condemned ? Are the minifters who fol- 
 lowed it with fuccefs to be impeached, and thofe 
 who, notwithftanding the communications from 
 Lord Stormont when ambaffador at Paris, neg- 
 lected it to the difgrace of Britain, to be pro- 
 moted and honoured ? Was not the conduct of 
 Mr. Haflings exactly in the fpirit of the great 
 Earl of Chatham ? And whether are we to repro- 
 bate the memory of the father, or to approve the 
 legal policy of the fon j who, as if he were born 
 to refute the doctrine that the qualities of the 
 mind are hereditary as well as thofe of the 
 body, condemns in Mr. Haftings what raifed 
 his progenitor to immortal honour ? 
 
 It will not be faid that the Earl of Chatham 
 acted improperly, when, being apprehenfive of 
 the defigns of Spain, by a fudden blow, he pre- 
 vented their execution. Yet there was no o- 
 vert act on the part of the Spaniards, no decla- 
 ration of intended hoftilities. What then is the 
 circumftance, or what the circumftances of dif- 
 crimination between the two cafes of Lord Cha- 
 tham and Mr. Haftings, which juftify the con- 
 duct
 
 [ 30 ] 
 
 duct of the former, and condemn that of the lat- 
 ter ? It may be faid, that the Begums of Oude 
 were living under the protection of our friend 
 and ally, or, to fpeak the truth, that they were 
 in fact our fubjects : and it alfo may be faid, that 
 the danger to which Great Britain was expofed 
 from Spain, was greater than that which was 
 threatened by the Begums. Befides thefe, there 
 Is no circumftance of diftinction between the 
 two cafes of Chatham and H ailings, which can 
 affect in the fmalleft degree the queftion'' at 
 iilue. 
 
 Though the Begums of Oude lived under the 
 protection of our ally, and were in fact our fub- 
 jects, they were divided from the English by all 
 thofe circumftances of diverfity which commonly 
 prove the fources of animofity and contefl among 
 nations. Though overborne by fuperior power, 
 the unconquerable will remained of lhaking off 
 the Englifli yoke j and who, reafoning on the prin- 
 ciples of the law of nature, will affirm that they 
 had not a right to fpurn it, if they could ? The 
 very circumftance of their fubjection was a reafon 
 why we fhould be jealous of their endeavours to 
 overturn it. There were more points of oppofi- 
 tion between them and the Britifh nation, than be- 
 tween the Britifh nation and the Spaniards : and 
 
 their
 
 their minds were at leaft equally hoftile. What is the 
 magic then, in the name of God, of their being our 
 friends, allies, or fubjects, that Ihould fuperfede the 
 propriety of confidering what are their real inclina- 
 tions, and what their power in all fituations when 
 vigilance becomes the firft duty of a fhtefman, 
 when jealoufy becomes a virtue? The only que- 
 ilion is, concerning the different degrees of the 
 dangers which threatened Great Britain from the 
 Spaniards in 1762, and from the princes of India 
 in 1781. And here an opportunity is prefented 
 of difplaying the ftriking contraft between the 
 glorious fucceffes of the Englilh arms in the for- 
 mer period, and the misfortunes which menaced 
 our independence in the latter. But it is fuperfluous 
 to dwell on fo fertile a theme. For who that, dif- 
 miffing the illufions of the imagination, yields to 
 the conduct of his underftanding, does not per- 
 ceive the abfurdity and injuftice of applauding the 
 vigour, promptitude, and prevention of the Earl 
 of Chatham in times of national fplendour unful- 
 lied by a cloud, and condemning the fame quali- 
 ties and a fimilar courfe of conduct in Mr Haf- 
 tings, when condenfing ftorms feemed ready to 
 wreck the ftate on rocks and fhoals, or overwhelm 
 it in the troubled ocean ? As to the comparative 
 evidence on which an apprehenfion of hoftilities 
 
 on
 
 on the part 'of the Spaniards, and on that of the 
 Begums of Oude, was founded, there was no overt 
 a<ft of hoftility, which Mr. Pitt declared to be ne- 
 ceflary, in order to afcertain hoftile intentions, 
 that could be charged and proved againft either. 
 But both had made military preparations, reports 
 in both cafes had prevailed of hoflile intentions, 
 and in both the circmnftances of the times were 
 fuch as to render thofe reports highly credible. 
 The reports in India which Mr. Sheridan treated 
 as vague, fortunately for this country, made that 
 impreffion on the mind of Mr. Haftings, which 
 they were naturally fitted to make on a found un- 
 derftanding and a refolute mind ; and that im- 
 prefTion w~as afterwards juftified by evidence on 
 oath before the chief Britilh magiftrate in India. 
 But the enemies of Mr. Haftings obferve, that 
 this evidence was poflerior to the actions which 
 prefuppofed them; and they contend that whatever 
 pretenfions Mr. Haftings may have to penetra- 
 tion, and however fortunate the meafures he pur- 
 fued, he did not ad: towards the Begums on legal 
 evidence, even fuppofing the teftimonies produced 
 to have been unqueftionable, which they deny. 
 Suppofe that Mr Haftings had been placed in 
 fuch a fituation as to have over-heard a converfa- 
 tion involving rebellious defigns, and fixing the 
 
 meafures
 
 [ 33 1 
 
 ilieafures for carrying them into execution, between 
 the Begums and their confidential fervants, but 
 that he was the only perfon in the world that ever 
 had any reafon to fufpect fuch defigns, or to be made 
 acquainted with the meafures propofed for effecting 
 them; would he have acted in an unjuftifiable man- 
 ner, if he had fruftrated their intentions by cutting 
 off the means of fulfilling them? Mr.Haftings, from 
 his knowledge of the country, the people, and the 
 circumftances of the day and hour, muft be al- 
 lowed to have been a better judge of the credit due 
 to the reports that prevailed of the defigns of the 
 Begums, than any perfon in Great Britain at the 
 prefent moment, at fo great a diftance of fpace 
 and time. It appeared by fubfequent difcoveries 
 that he judged rightly. How ridiculous then is 
 it to condemn him for acting according to the 
 dictates of his understanding, when thefe were 
 afterwards proved to have been wholly conform- 
 able to the truth ? 
 
 But in order to weaken the evidence that was 
 produced in proof that his convictions concerning 
 the defigns of the Begums were in fact conform- 
 able to the truth, the accufers of Mr. Haftings 
 enter at great length into the fituation of the wit- 
 nefTes, and the nature of their evidence. The 
 witnefles, they fay, were men on whom he had 
 F bellowed,
 
 t 54 1 
 
 beftowed, or on whom he might beflow favours j 
 or who, from whatever caufe, were attached to 
 his perfon. There,, it muft be owned, they have 
 a field of objection to all the teftimony that can 
 be brought in vindication of his conduct : for 
 the fublimity of his genius had gained an afcend- 
 ency over the underftandings, and the generofity 
 of his difpofition, and the unaiTuming modefty of 
 his manners, had won the hearts of all whom ar- 
 rogance and rivality had not rendered blind to 
 his exalted talents and virtues, and indifferent, 
 nay, inimical to the profperity of their country, 
 if it depended on his exertions, or was connected 
 with his name. It may naturally be fuppofed, 
 therefore, that as the Britim in India, in gene- 
 ral, would be forward to bear teftimony in 
 favour of the Governor-General, fo the few who 
 might be otherwife difpofed, would be willing to 
 avoid a contrary conduct : yet the popularity of 
 any Commander or Chief cannot certainly be 
 urged as a legal objection to evidence in his 
 favour, if that evidence bears no internal marks 
 offalfehood. The facts alledged amount to a 
 clear proof of both rebellious defigns and actions, 
 and the teftimonies by which they are fupported 
 are iufficient both with regard to numbers and 
 refpectability. The flight difference between the 
 
 tefti-
 
 C 35 1 
 
 teftimony of Sheikh -Mdhomed Aumeen Mheir* 
 the fecond officer in the fervice of Cheit Sing, 
 and that of Colonel Hannay, and the other Eng- 
 lifh officers ; the firft, fuppofing the troops 
 fent to the Rajah to have been fent from Luc- 
 now, the laft knowing them to have been fent 
 from Fyzabad, but all agreeing that one thou- 
 fand fwordfmen were fent by orders of the Be- 
 gums j the flight difference, I fay, between thefe 
 teflimonies, difagreeing in an immaterial circum- 
 ftance, but perfectly coinciding in the point for 
 which they were produced, inftead of invalida- 
 ting, corroborates their joint evidence, as it is a 
 clear proof that it was not preconcerted. But 
 the grand objection to the vindication of Mr. 
 Haflings, as written by himielf, in what Mr. 
 Sheridan calls his firft and fecond Defences, is, 
 that the chain of evidence is not brought up 
 from the commandant in the fervice of Cheit 
 Sing, and from Colonel Hannay and the other 
 Englifh officers, through every intermediate 
 link, to the Begums ifTuing orders to their eu- 
 nuchs in the recefies of the feraglio, Who told 
 the Moorifh Commandant, and the Englifh of- 
 ficers, that circular letters were written to the 
 Zemindars of Oude, inciting them to rebellion ; 
 that rewards were proclaimed for the heads of 
 F 2 Englifh
 
 [ 36 1 
 
 officers, foldierrj and fepoys ; and that 
 all this was done in confequence of orders from 
 the Begums ? What Zemindar, Polygar, or 
 Ryot ? Specify his name and place of refi- 
 clence. Tell us precifely what he faid, and 
 where, and when. If not, we fhall hold your 
 evidence in favour of Mr. Haftings as carelefs, 
 vague, irregular, irrelevant, and unfatisfactory. 
 This is their great fortrefs. In this they tri- 
 umph. 
 
 It has been bbferved above, that confcious. 
 rectitude is not curious about the means of felf- 
 juftificatiori, and that exceffive anxiety about ex- 
 culpation is not unnaturally conftrued into a 
 fymptom of guilt. Or, if the accufers of the 
 Governor, when they touched on this point, 
 happened to be in a merry vein, what a field, 
 as Mr. Haftings very juftly obferves, for triumph 
 and derifion would he have afforded to his ac- 
 cufer, had he exhibited the names of unknown 
 witneffes attefted by Cauzees of uncertain exift- 
 nce ! Might it not, too, have been very piau- 
 fibly alledged, that the Governor General, in the 
 plentitude of his power, was able to extort from 
 individuals what declarations, and from the 
 lawyers of the country whatever atteftations 
 he pleafed ? Thefe confiderations are fufncient 
 
 to
 
 [ 37 ] 
 
 to account for the neglect on the part of Mr, 
 Haftings and his friends to collect and record 
 the names of the witnefies on whofe teftimony 
 prompt meafures were taken for quafhing in good 
 time the defigns of the Begums of Oude. But, 
 left all thefe reafonings fhould prove unfatis- 
 factory, and that the omitting to mention, or the 
 concealment, if they pleafe, of the names of the 
 Zemindars who acquainted the fervants of the 
 Company with the defigns of the Princefles, 
 fhould fofter injurious fufpicions, Mr. Haftings 
 and his friends, and all who are concerned to 
 inveftigate the truth in this matter, may fafely 
 reft the iflue of the whole caufe on this queftion; 
 Can a fufficient reafon be given why the Englifh 
 officers in the evidence they gave before Sir 
 Elijah Impey, fhould ftudioufly conceal the 
 names of the Zemindars from whom they re- 
 ceived intelligence of what was tranfacted and 
 intended in the province of Oude ? 
 
 There is no perfon, however independent iri 
 fortune, that can bear to be fhut out from, the 
 fympathy and fociety of his fellow-men. To be 
 frowned on by every countenance, to be regarded 
 with averfion and abhorrence by every eye, is a 
 (late of mifery and defpair from which there is not 
 an human being who would not willingly take 
 
 flicker 
 
 354620
 
 [ 38 ] 
 
 {belter in the filent grave : but he who fhould 
 have held an eftate or farm, or any pofieOlon in 
 the province of Oude, and at the fame time have 
 appeared in character of an informer againft the 
 Begums, would have been exiled from the fo- 
 ciety and the affectionate regards of his fellow- 
 men, and become an object of univerfal hatred 
 and execration. Mr. Sheridan puts the queftion, 
 Is it natural to fuppofe that the Zemindar, or 
 native Hindoo of whatever denomination, Ihould 
 wifh to have 4t concealed, that he had done a 
 fervice to the Prince, his new matter, and to the 
 victorious and rlourifhing Englifh ? Would he 
 not rather boaft of his merits, and look for pro- 
 tection and reward ? No. Conftituted like other 
 men, endowed with the common feelings of hu- 
 manity, there is no reward which he would put 
 in competition with a total exclufion from human 
 fociety. A reward of thirty thoufand pounds was, 
 offered after the battle of Culloden, 1746, to the 
 man that fliould deliver up or difcover the Pre- 
 tender, who wandered foe many months in the 
 Highlands and iflands of Scotland ; yet was there 
 not found a man, among thoufands ftruggling 
 with poverty and want, who would relieve his 
 fufferings by the price of blood. The High- 
 landers are an inoffenfive, humane, and generous 
 
 race
 
 [ 39 3 
 
 race of men j yet it is not to be fuppofed that there 
 was not one among fo great a number who would 
 not have yielded tofuch a temptation, if he had not 
 dreaded, as worfe than poverty^ or any evil from 
 which wealth could fecure him, the univerfal ab- 
 horrence of mankind. In London the reward would 
 have operated on the minds of thoufands, be- 
 caufe in the obfcurity of that immenfe capital 
 thoufands of wretches are to be found who can 
 fkulk from the face of their former acquaintance, 
 and in new alleys and lanes efcape the condem- 
 nation of their infamy. This was not the cafe in 
 the Highlands of Scotland j nor yet in the Ze- 
 mindaries of Oude. The Zemindar or Ryot 
 who fhould have difcovered any fa<5t that might 
 affect the fortune or the dignity of the Begums, 
 if it had been known that he difcovered it to his 
 neighbours, would have found life infupportable ; 
 while, at the fame time, various motives may be con- 
 ceived that might have induced him to court the fa- 
 vour, and even to wifh for the liability of the Eng- 
 lifli Government. Is it any wonder, then, that the 
 natives or fubj efts of Oude, who communicated 
 intelligence of the rebellion to the Englifh officers, 
 fhould defire that their intelligence might be kept 
 fecret ? Or is it a wonder that Englilh officers 
 Ihould keep k their plighted faith to the Zemin- 
 dars
 
 [ 40 ] 
 
 dars who committed their future happinefs into 
 their hands ? It would feem, that no inconfide- 
 rable part of the accufation brought againft Mn 
 Haftings, and thofe who acted with and under 
 him, is founded on their very virtue. 
 
 As the good faith and humanity exercifed to- 
 wards the Zemindars and others, who gave in- 
 telligence, has been converted into a fubject" 
 of fufpicion, foalfo has the lenity and forbearance 
 Ihewn to the eunuchs and confidential fervants 
 of the Begums, after the difcovery of their trea- 
 lures. The treafures difcovered, fays Mr. She- 
 ridan, the eunuchs are fet at liberty, und all per- 
 fecution of their miftrefies immediately ceafes : 
 Does this look like an inquiry into a precon- 
 certed rebellion, or an aft of deliberate rapa- 
 city ? If Mr. Haftings had continued to prefs 
 down the load of fuffering, if the eunuchs had 
 been thrown into dungeons, and outrages com- 
 mitted againft the Begums, a court of inquifi- 
 tion inftkuted, and evidence invited, or even ex- 
 torted ; then would Mr. Haftings have efcaped 
 the imputation of interrupting feverities the 
 moment the end was obtained for which they had 
 been applied ; but he would have alfo forfeited 
 the praife which is due to the magnanimous mo- 
 deration of his conduct. " Enough had been 
 
 " done
 
 - [ 41 ] 
 
 te done for the reftoration of the Nabob's autho- 
 " rity, and for the fecurity of the peace of his 
 tf country ; enough had been done for an exhibi- 
 " tion of example." It is unfair to judge of Mr. 
 Haftings' actions taken fmgly and by themfelves. 
 We ought to view them as they are performed 'in 
 fucceffion, and combined to a falutary purpofe. 
 Mr. Haftings confulted at once his own feelings 
 and the ends of his adminiftration, when, with the 
 meafures that he judged to be necefiary for fup- 
 porting the authority of the Nabob, he united re- 
 fpect for the fex and a regard to the neceffities of 
 the mother and grandmother of our princely 
 ally. And, on the whole, let the world judge, 
 whether ever any Governor, viceroy, or prince, 
 who had fo difficult a part to act as Mr. Haftings, 
 mingled greater refpect to the feelings and rights 
 of human nature, with that fyftem of conduct 
 which was necefiary to maintain the authority of 
 Government. This, this is the grand and dcci- 
 five point on which Mr. Haftings ought to be 
 tried by his country, and on which he will be 
 tried, and juftified too, if not by his country that 
 reaps the fruits of his faithful fervices, yet by the 
 common fenfe and juftice of all civilized nations, 
 but by none more readily than that enlightened 
 people, whofe inordinate ambition his meafures 
 fo effectually reftrained. 
 
 G This
 
 C 4* ] 
 
 This did not efcape the fhrewdnefs o 
 Sheridan. It was therefore the confideration of 
 this point, with which he fet out in his artful, en- 
 tertaining, and prolonged oration. Mr. Demp- 
 fler had put fome queftions to the witneffes at the 
 bar tending to afcercain that extremity of danger 
 which was threatened by the long arrears due to 
 the army. Mr. Sheridan animadverted on thofe 
 quefcions with great rhetorical emotion, and con- 
 tended that no political neceflity whatever can 
 vindicate an act of injuftice. On the fame and 
 on other fubjects Mr. Fox has at different times 
 exclaimed in the Houfe of Common ^fatjujlitia^ 
 ruat tcelum\ a maxim which, as a writer of diftin- 
 guifhed reputation juftly'Obferved, would be an 
 abfurd facrifice of the end to the means. As 
 matters of fact always exift before law, an<} 
 laws are never fo numerous as cafes, new con* 
 junctures muft fometimes arife, in which it is 
 abfolutely necefifary to act according to the fu- 
 preme law of the general advantage. And the 
 purefl moralifts as well as theologians, have 
 concurred in opinion, that a cafe may exift 
 in which it is even cc expedient that one 
 <e man (hould die for the people." Even 
 the Stoic philofophy, from an enthufiaft in 
 which Mr. Fox borrows, and Mr. Sheridan 
 takes the occasional ufe of that Blowing exprefilon 
 
 juft
 
 r 43 ] 
 
 juft quoted, admits that the intereft and the very 
 life of an individual member may be juftly fa- 
 crificed on certain emergencies for the good of 
 that body of which he forms a part. Laws arife 
 out of the mixed (late of human affairs : human 
 affairs, in their prelent ftage, are not fquared to 
 the abflracted nicety of pre-exiftent laws. Mr. 
 Sheridan and Mr. Fox would not be fo great 
 Stoics as to carry their doctrine into practice, if 
 Providence fhould place them in a fituation in 
 which it would be neceffary for them either to 
 adhere to their maxim, or to ruin, not heaven and 
 earth, but even that narrow fpot called Great 
 Britain. 
 
 Vinci t amor pair lee t laudurnqne tmmenfa cnp':da. 
 Suppofing therefore, not granting, that there 
 was not fufficient evidence to convict the Begums 
 either of rebellious actions or defigns, before an 
 ordinary court of juftice in ordinary cafes, yet if 
 the fituation of affairs was fuch, that either the 
 public fafety muft be ruined, or feme facrifice or 
 other made for its prefervation, it was the duty 
 of Mr. Haftings to make fuch a facrifice : and 
 if there was an option of facrifcces, it was alfo his 
 duty to fix on that which was the moll effectual 
 for obtaining its end, and which could be made 
 with the leail violation, or appearance of violation, 
 of juftice. But to refume the jaghires (an equi- 
 G 2 valent
 
 [ 44 ] 
 
 valent being intended), and to feize the treafures 
 of the Begums, was the moft effectual facrifice 
 that could be made. It was alfo that which could 
 be made with the leaft violation, or appear- 
 ance of violation, of juftice; for there was 
 at leaft a degree of probable evidence that thofe 
 Begums entertained hoftile defigns againft the 
 Englifh, and that they had even begun to carry 
 them into execution : therefore, the meafures 
 taken by Mr. Haftings on the emergency in 
 queftion, were, in all refpects, the moft proper 
 that could have been poflibly imagined. If they 
 were improper, let the Englifh nation reftore 
 their treafures to the Begums. 
 
 If in human nature there are qualities by 
 which it is diftinguifhed from the animal crea- 
 tion, men are themfelves, in different climates, 
 greatly diverfified : and they not only find in 
 their condition the fources of variance and dif- 
 fention, but they appear to have in their minds 
 the very feeds of animofity, and to embrace the 
 occafions of mutual oppofition with alacrity and 
 pleafurej a conftitution of nature, which, in the 
 myfterious courfe of Providence, gives room 
 for the exercife of the nobleft virtues. From 
 this diverfity among the different nations there 
 arifes a diverfity in the modes by which they 
 are governed/ One form of government fuits 
 
 one
 
 [ 45 ] 
 
 one country, and one another. The govern- 
 ments in Afia are defpotic, and it is by fum- 
 mary proceedings alone, and a ftrong arm, by 
 which, in their prefent moral condition, they 
 can be governed. To introduce new forms of 
 government into nations, if practicable at all, is 
 the work of time. Attempts were made to in- 
 troduce liberty into Ruffia at once, but they prov- 
 ed abortive j and, in like manner, the fteps that 
 have been taken to introduce the Englifh law 
 into India have been attended with great con- 
 fufion, and been productive of much inconvenience 
 and mifchief. It is found difficult to govern the Hin- 
 doos by our laws even in times of profound peace. 
 What then was Mr. Haftings to do in times of in- 
 finite difficulty and danger ? In proportion to the 
 embarraffments of the Englilh, the ideas and pre- 
 tenfions of the native princes of India naturally 
 revived. The novelty and the odioufnefs of our 
 inftitutions were more fenfibly felt ; the fanctions 
 by which they were eftablifhed were weakened ; 
 and all things feemed rapidly to revert to that 
 fituation in which we found India, when, under 
 the pretence of being the treafurers and tax- 
 gatherers of the Great Mogul, we extended our 
 power over fo many provinces of Afia. The 
 Britifh power in India was only of an artificial 
 
 kind,
 
 C 46 1 
 
 kind, the whole mafs of numbers and opinion of 
 right being againft it. If the truth muft be told, 
 it was purely defpotic, and depended for its 
 efficacy on the principle of FEAR. Should the 
 preffure and weight of Government be leffened, 
 the fire, which was fmothered only by that weight 
 and prefiure, muft break out with an explofion 
 fatal to the oppreffors. The feeble, the partial, and 
 varying attempts that had been made to eftablifh 
 a new order of affairs^ had not formed fuch a 
 ftrength of Government as could be depended on 
 in a new and unprecedented fituation, big with 
 danger and final deftruction. The artificial mounds 
 by which we had fometimes endeavoured, and 
 might yet propofe to confine and lead the ftrearn 
 of popular opinion, would giVe way to that ftorm 
 which was ready to fall, and reftore all things to 
 their ufual and their deepeft channel. It is juftly 
 obferved by the Roman hiftorian Salluft, that do- 
 minion is eafily preferved by the fame means 
 through which it was gained. On the occafion 
 of an extrordinary and alarming conjuncture in 
 India, the Governor General of Bengal reverted 
 to the principles by which our dominion there 
 had been both acquired and fupported, and pro- 
 vided for the public fafety by expedients, which, 
 in times of tranquillity, and in European Go- 
 vernments,
 
 [ 47 ] 
 
 vernments, might be deemed violent and irregu- 
 lar, but which, in the circumftances in which he 
 was placed, were proper, becaufe they were fa- 
 lutary. 
 
 If ever a cafe exifted in which a ruler of a peo- 
 ple might affume a latitude of conduct fuitable to 
 political exigences, Mr. Haftings is juftifiable in 
 the meafures in queftion, by all that can juftify an 
 extraordinary ftep in an extraordinary iituation: 
 rectitude of intention ; the wife adaption of the 
 means to the end ; and complete fuccefs. The 
 meafures he purfued were not purfued for his own 
 emolument, (for Mr FRANCIS does not charge 
 him with a fpirit of private avarice and rapine,) 
 but for the public fafety. In refuming the jag- 
 hires, and feizing the treafures of the Begums, 
 he confulted the public tranquillity, and by fet- 
 tling on thofe fequeftrated Princefles a yearly reve- 
 nue in money, inftead of land, he provided for 
 their own. His adminiftration has been crowned 
 with glorious fuccefs : nor would a nation fo ge- 
 nerous as the Englim have been contented with 
 merely abstaining from all criminations of fo ami- 
 able a private, and fo great a public character, if 
 private refentment, indefatigable labour, and the 
 yunoft acutenefs of underlianding, had not com- 
 J)ined to exhibit a malignant and partial view of his 
 
 actions
 
 [ 48 ] 
 
 a&ions in detail, inftead of tracing the mutual con- 
 nections and contemplating the refult of the whole. 
 For of what, my countrymen, is Mr. Haf. 
 tings accufed ? Not of fnatching the morfel 
 from him that is ready to faint : not of tear- 
 ing the fcanty veftment from fhivering limbs : 
 not of extorting by refined torments, like a Cortez 
 or Pizarro, or fome of our own nation, whofe 
 names the imagination of the reader will readily 
 fupply, hoarded treafures for fwelling a private for- 
 tune-, but, at the very worft, for faving an empire 
 by irregular means. Who, henceforth, will nobly 
 dare to break through the reftraints that malice 
 and cabal, armed with the chicanery of law, im- 
 pofe on every mind that is more anxious about 
 felf-intereft than the public profperity and fafety ? 
 Shall it henceforth be neceffary, for the conduct of 
 our diftant concerns, to fend out the Judges of 
 Weftminfter-hall, or his Majefty's Solicitor and 
 Attorney-General ? What is to be our fituation 
 in Alia, if our affairs are directed in that quarter of 
 the world, not by the towering genius of Warren 
 Haftings, but the creeping caution of Pepper Ar- 
 den ? In the fuccefsful, I will add, in the mild 
 meafures adopted by the Governor-General, was 
 there ought repugnant to the fpirit by which our 
 dominions in India had been uniformly governed ? 
 
 The
 
 t 49 ] 
 
 The conditions on which our territorial property 
 in India was transferred to the Eaft-India Com- 
 pany, were indeed plaufible, but thofe conditions 
 were not obferved. The king of Delhi granted 
 certain rights to the Company, on condition of 
 their paying that tribute which he was unable to 
 raife from the refractory Nabobs of the Mogul 
 empire. But if he was unable to enforce his de- 
 mands ori the native Princes of India, he was {till 
 lefs able to enforce them on the Company, armed 
 with the troops and the navies of Britain. The 
 Company exacted the tribute from the Princes, 
 but with-held it from the Emperor. They vio- 
 lated their engagements, and purfued a fyftem of 
 rapine. Nor let it be faid that thefe were the adts 
 of the Company only : the Britilh Government 
 were accomplices in their fchemes ; they defended 
 them by their power, and they fhared in the plun- 
 der. The Eaft-India fair trade was hardly able 
 to fuppcrt itfelf. It was the territorial property, 
 and the private fortunes acquired in India, that 
 made this trade beneficial to the nation at large, 
 and which alone enabled the Company to pay the 
 annual fum ftipulated with Government. It can- 
 not be concealed that this was the real ground on 
 which our affairs flood in India, and this the 
 principle on which they were conducted. The 
 H Govei nor
 
 E Jo I 
 
 Governor General reprefented the Genius of Bri- 
 tannia in the Eaft, which was not fmiling and 
 foft, but commanding and auftere. If to main- 
 tain this tone was a crime, it was not the crime 
 of him in whofe perfon it centred, and by whofe 
 fidelity to his engagements it was difplayed. 
 No, my countrymen, it was not Mr. Haftings 
 that was reduced to. the neceflky of over-awing 
 by feafonable feverities the rebellious defigns of 
 the Rajah of Benares and the Begums of Oude, 
 and crufhing in the bud a general revolt in India. 
 It was our mifmanagement and clifafters in the 
 Weft : it was our love of gain and ambition in 
 the Eaft : it was the combination of the world 
 againft us,, that obliged the man in whofe hands 
 our fafety was entrufted, to ufe the beft means in 
 his power for its prefervation. It was faid of 
 eld, 
 
 Ghtodf. vioJandum jut) regnandl caufa violandum eft. 
 
 This maxim was not delivered in defence of 
 cruel and wanton ambition. It imports, that, as 
 political government is the greateft bleffing of 
 human fociety, it is to be preferved and main- 
 tained at all adventures. Every political grie- 
 vance may be remedied by a nation while it pof- 
 lefles the force and fpring of legiflative authority : 
 
 but
 
 ; . I 51 3 
 
 but when that is loft, all is loft. Were the inten- 
 tions of Great Britain, then, towards the natives 
 of India humane and gracious ? The light and 
 temporary diftrefies of the PrinceiTes of Oude 
 was a cheap price for fo great a purchafe : for I 
 aflume it as a maxim, that, without that facrifice, 
 the power of Britain in India muft have been an- 
 nihilated. But this would not have happened 
 without a ftruggle : fo that the queftion that Mr. 
 Haftings had under confideration was, Whether, 
 when the fortune of Great Britain flood trembling 
 on a precipice, and the ftrongeft probabilities (if 
 our lawyers impugn the denomination of legal 
 evidence) exifted, that the Begums of Oude had 
 taken the firft fteps of revoh, whether he Ihould 
 follow the courfe he in fact purfued ; or, by yield- 
 ing to the inevitable neceffity of a mutiny, or of 
 difbanding the army, cut off the hopes of a poli- 
 tical reform in India, by cutting off the power of 
 England on which it depended, involve the whole 
 country in anarchy and bloodfhed, expofe the 
 Englifh to the revenge of the natives, and render 
 the final diffolution of our power in the Eait as 
 violent and painful, as its firft commencement 
 was plaufible, and its progrefs profperous ? In 
 fuch a dilemma, could the rigour of juftice, could 
 the tendernefs of mercy, condemn even fuch an 
 expedient as that which was reforted to by the 
 H 2 Marquis
 
 [ r- 3 
 
 Marquis 'of Fauquieres in the confederate war, 
 in the reign of queen Ann ? The Marquis was 
 fent out, at the head of a party which was to pafs 
 in the night through a wood in deep filence, and 
 to perform a fervice which required equal fecrecy 
 and expedition, and on the performance of which 
 the very falvation of the French army depended. 
 Towards the morning, but while it was yet dark, 
 one of the men under his command began to 
 cough violently, and could not by his utmoft 
 efforts fupprefs that irrefiftible convulfion. The 
 commander facriiiced the life of one man to that 
 of thoufands *. The French nation lamented the 
 hard fate of the innocent man ; but did not 
 condemn the action of the general. Compare 
 with this deed the conduct of Mr. Haftings in 
 Oude, and the innocence, and even fervices of 
 the French foldier, with the hoftile intentions 
 and preparations of the Begums j and fay, if 
 cither, which was the moft to be condemned ? 
 
 In a critical and biographical introduction to 
 an hiiloryqf the reigns of King William and 
 queen Ann, by Mr. Alexander Cunningham, 
 the Englilh Refident at Venice, juft published, 
 and which, I truft, will be read and ftudied by 
 every man who is a friend to the liberty, who 
 * See Fauquieres' Memoirs.
 
 .delights in recollecting the pureft and moft glo- 
 rious times of our republic, and is difpofed to 
 watch the many-formed ambition of France : in 
 the Introduction, I fay, to that hiftory, there is 
 an anecdote recorded of the great Prince Eu r 
 gene, which I fubmit to the confideration of the- 
 accufers of Mr. Railings. At the battle of 
 Malplaquet, while victory yet hung in fuipence, 
 a youth of the name of James Campbell (after- 
 wards General Sir James Campbell, of Laurs), 
 at the head of a party of horfe, fprung forward 
 out of the line, cut through the enemy, and even 
 the Gens d'Armes of France, and through again 
 to the confederate army. This daring action 
 {truck a panic in the French, infpired our men 
 with courage, and decided the fate of the day. 
 Certain officers of our army murmured againft 
 Campbell, and were fevere in their cenfures of 
 his conduct. But Eugene, who, as the writer 
 of the Introduction obferyes, conceived that a 
 conjuncture might exift wherein the tranfgreflion 
 of rules might imply the higheft degree of merit, 
 thanked him for having fo nobly and fuccefsfully 
 exceeded his orders, on the day after the battle, 
 at the head of the army. Is the power of France 
 Jefs now than it was then ? Is her ambition, though 
 better concealed. Ids dangerous ? Is the merit 
 
 of
 
 of Haftings lefs than that of Campbell ? No 1 
 but an Eugene is wanting to proclaim his juft 
 praife in the face of his enemies. 
 
 But it was not only India that Mr. Hailing* 
 faved to the Britifh empire. The conquefts that 
 were made there, by the valour of the Britifh 
 troops under his government, were exchanged, 
 at the late peace, for other places, which, but 
 for thofe conquefts, mufl have remained in the 
 hands of our enemies. Now, Mr. Fox, and 
 others of his party, as Major Scott told them in 
 their teeth without being contradicted, about two 
 months before the peace was concluded, declared 
 in the Houfe of Commons, that without a peace 
 of fome kind or other this nation was undone, 
 A peace as honourable and advantageous to 
 Great Britain as her fituation could poffibly leave 
 room to expect was concluded j and immediately 
 Mr. Fox and his friends, who had fo often de- 
 voted Lord North to the block, unite for the 
 purpofe of turning the man out of his office, by 
 whom the peace was made. So that both the 
 man who made the peace, and the man who, 
 by the vigour of his adminiftration in the Eaft, 
 enabled him to make it, without facrificing our 
 Weft India I Hands captured by the French, are 
 rewarded, the one with the lofs of office, the 
 
 Other
 
 C 55 ] 
 
 Other with an unprecedented and ridiculous, but 
 vexatious perfecution ! Never furely were fer- 
 vices fo ill requited as thofe of Mr. Haftings to 
 this country. In private life he was the friend, 
 and patron, and bountiful afliftant of thoufands, 
 devolved by their friends on fortune and on his 
 goodnefs. In his public character he faved 
 India by the gentleft facrifice that was ever yet 
 made by prince or ruler in circumftances fo full 
 of alarm and danger : yet this is the man of 
 whom Mr. Burke fays, that " it is indecent that 
 *' he Ihould be permitted to go about at large, 
 " enjoying the common benefits of liberty, frefli 
 " air, and focial life." 
 
 As I introduced thefe obfervations on the 
 charges brought againft Mr. Haftings by his 
 enemies, and on the arguments by which they 
 are fupported, with a great name, to whofe cha- 
 racter and fortune thofe of that gentleman bear a 
 ftriking refemblance , fo I lhall, in like man- 
 ner, conclude them, by remarking a fimilarity 
 between his conduct, on his return from India, 
 and that of another great fpirit, when his fortune 
 and fate were committed to the general opinion 
 and determination of the Englifh nation. " While 
 " the fucceffion was yet unfettled, King William 
 <c entered into no intrigues either with the 
 
 " electors
 
 L 55 ] 
 
 ** electors or the members of parliament ; and 
 " fo far was he from forming cabals with the 
 " leaders of parties, that he difdained even td 
 " beftow carefles on thofe whofe afliftance might 
 <c be ufeful to him*." Admirals have loft oppor- 
 tunities, Generals have loft armies, and Com- 
 manders in Chief aufpicious conjunctures and 
 times never to be recalled j but they threw them- 
 felves into the fcale of oppofition, and were 
 loaded with offices and honours. Mr. Haftings, 
 the faviour of the nation, courts not the favour of 
 any party, but looks confidently to the nation for 
 juftice. It might have become Adminiftration, 
 as well-wifhers to the fupport of the Britifh Go- 
 vernment, to have fhe^vn fo much countenance 
 at leaft to the caufe of Mr. Haftings, as to have 
 ufed their influence, which prevails fb much in 
 other matters, in order to obtain a patient hearing 
 to the evidence and arguments urged by Mr. 
 Burgefs, Mr. Nicholls, Major Scott, and others. 
 The little jealoufy and cunning of the Minifter 
 of the day begin already to be generally fuf- 
 pected, and the motives which directed his voice 
 againft Mr. Haftings to be underftood. I truft 
 to the generofity of the Englifh nation, tha*. 
 
 * Hume's Hiitory of England. 
 
 the
 
 [ 5.7 3 
 
 the meannefs of that iniquitous policy will one 
 day be made manifeft; that it will lay the name 
 with the power of that cunning youth, low in the 
 duft, and ferve as a foil to difplay the magnani- 
 mous virtue of Mr. Haftings, concerning 
 whofe praife no tongue or pen that defcribes the 
 prefent, in any future times, {hall be filent. 
 Were it not that the example of his ill-requited 
 merit may ftrike its roots too deep into the 
 hearts of other commanders, and that the enemies 
 of our country will triumph over us, I fliould al- 
 moft rejoice that fo great, fo well regulated, 
 and compofed a mind as that of Mr. Haftings, 
 has found, like the glorious objects of antient 
 eflracijm^ in the perfecution of his countrymen, 
 the nobleft theatre of virtue, and the loudeft 
 trumpet of fame. And yet the vote of the 
 Houle of Commons on the 8th of February, 
 and particularly that of one man, I cannot reflect 
 on without furprize and indignation. I do not 
 wonder that the warm imagination of Mr. Burke 
 is over- heated by fo long and clofe an attention 
 to one object. I do not wonder that Mr. She- 
 ridan, though of a difpofition naturally honeft, 
 generous, and noble, fhould, from political views, 
 act the part fo wifely committed to his powers by 
 his political friends : far lefs do I wonder that even 
 I he,
 
 [ 58 ] 
 
 he, who in fuch fufpicious circumftances aban- 
 doned the inquiry into the affair of Rumbold, and 
 who had acknowlegded fo emphatically, that, 
 but for the exertions of Mr. Haflings, India 
 muft have been loft, I do not wonder that he 
 who had no character for confiftency to lofe, 
 fhould fit filent amidft the criminations againft 
 the man whom he had praifed, and fneak off 
 under the fhadow of the minifterial wing to 
 vote againft him : but I wonder, that Mr. 
 Pitt, who owes his ftation to the friends 
 and to the perfonal magnanimity of the Go- 
 vernor General, in refufing to purchafe his 
 quietus by joining a faction againftrhim-, I won- 
 der that Mr. Pitt, who pretends to ftand folely 
 on the confidence of his countrymen, fhould fo 
 meanly and fo impolitically defert that great 
 man to whofe influence and virtue he owes his 
 power, and his country its fafety. Do you wifh, 
 young ftatefman, by fuch truckling conduit, to 
 gain the good opinion and friendfhip of your op- 
 ponents ? There is a generofity in the nature of 
 Fox, of North, of Burke, and Sheridan, which 
 will never coalefce with the cunning of yours. 
 -Though the fortune of political war has placed 
 thefe men in the oppofite lines, their hearts and 
 minds are congenial with thofe of Haftings. Are 
 
 you
 
 C 59 ] 
 
 you To weak, notwithftanding all that is taught 
 by the law of nature, and even by the facred 
 Scriptures, as to plead fcruples of conference? 
 Go then, exchange fituations with Doctor Pret- 
 tyman, abandon the government of a great na- 
 tion, and preferve the peace of your mind by re- 
 linquifhing your power, not by facrificing ,your 
 friend. But is there not fomewhat of jealouly 
 at the bottom of your oppofition to Mr. Haftings ? 
 The world thinks fo; and, I believe, your 
 countrymen will foon convince you that they do. 
 The perfecutions carried on againft great and 
 good men, and the triumphs of the wicked and 
 weak, with which the Englifh hiftory, and ef- 
 pecially in its lateft periods, abounds, ftiew how 
 unworthily popular favour may be gained, and 
 how undefervedly loft ; how quick thofe tran- 
 fitions from one extreme to another, which are 
 incident to popular governments ; and with what 
 caution and referve we ought to yield our affent 
 to the doctrines of the day, or our approbation 
 to the meafures of the moment, the true mo- 
 tives of which are feldom avowed, although 
 plaufible pretexts are eafily found for recom- 
 mending them to the multitude, who, from ma- 
 lignity, from a love of innovation and amufe- 
 ment, and from the very fociability of their na- 
 ture,
 
 [ 60 ] 
 
 ture, arc eager to catch and fwell whatever tone 
 happens to be uppermoft for the time, which 
 originates for the moft part in private and un- 
 juflifiable views, and which is circulated at firft 
 by feififh induftry, and at lafl by the tides of 
 fympathy and currents of popular paflion. But 
 thefe tides and currents fooner or later fubfide, 
 and return by a natural and neceflary reflux in 
 an oppofite direction ; Jometimes^ as in the ge- 
 neral forrow which followed the de^th of So- 
 crates, even to a point when unavailing repen- 
 tance manifefts itfelf in ads of outrage and niad- 
 nefs. It is not until fuch tumults are calmed 
 that the characters of men are juftly eftimated , 
 and their names duly embalmed in the faithful 
 , page of hiftory. 
 
 FINIS.
 
 i i . 
 
 / , .7 v / frf 
 
 V V t 'V a/t*fft.(-t-if j 
 A - f*>c h c~ti *S c"n 
 
 Atf, ' : 4 .' 
 
 <- . , t - // 1 * t 
 
 c y i i /? /r-// / it 
 
 &-C} tf&IJ <f*-if 
 
 // 
 
 ^ . ! i L / c f f / ^ v -r ^ c /r <r 4! 
 
 cr-lVf 
 
 *- f'^A ft 
 
 \f 7 ;/, ^Xc/* 
 
 ' ^.^ cl , 4-
 
 7: 
 
 /'cv/^ ^^h L'"^SL ,s fist <n*i#w 
 
 Xk'^i// ^ 3 
 
 1^^ ~ - 4-2- 
 
 \ ' \ t x ./-// /^ A f

 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 DEC 4 1956 
 
 AUG 3"t"961 
 
 REC' 
 M 
 
 MAR111867 
 
 L&-URL 
 
 6VJN 
 
 REC'D LD-URI 
 NOV 
 
 NOV141968 
 
 ONIVEKS1T Y 
 
 AT 
 
 06 ANGELES 
 LJBRABY
 
 DS 
 473.5 
 
 A64 
 
 land, 
 oj 
 
 An appeal 
 
 to the 
 people of 
 and Scot - 
 in behalf