As to the Bengal provinces, he did not take for the company the vice-royalty, as Mr. Holwell would have persuaded, almost forced, the company to do; but, to satisfy the prejudices of the Mahomedans, the country was left in the hands nominally of the soubah or viceroy, who was to administer the criminal justice and the exteriour forms of royalty. He obtained from the sovereign the dewannee. This is the great act of the constitutional entrance of the company into the body politick of India. It gave to the settlement of Bengal a fixed constitutional form, with a legal title acknowledged and recognized now for the first time by all the natural powers of the country, because it arose from the charter of the undoubted sovereign. The dewannee, or high-stewardship, gave to the company the collection and management of the revenue; and in this modest and civil character they appeared not the oppressours but the protectors of the people. This scheme had all the real power, without any invidious appearance of it; it gave them the revenue, without the parade of sovereignty. On this double foundation the government was happily settled. The minds of the natives were quieted. The company's territories and views were circumscribed. The arm of force was put out of sight. The imperial name covered every thing. The power of the purse was in the company. The power of the sword was in they contracted for the maintenance of the army. company had a revenue of a million and a half. The nabob had indeed fallen from any real and effective power, yet the dignity of the court was maintained; the prejudices and interests of the Mahomedans, and particularly of their nobility, who had suffered more by this great revolution even than the old inhabitants of the country, were consulted for by this plan a revenue of 500,000l. was settled on the viceroyalty, which was thus enabled to provide in some measure for those great families. The company likewise, by this plan, in order to enjoy their revenues securely, and to avoid envy and murmur, put them into the hands of Mahomed Reza Cawn, whom lord Clive found in the management of affairs, and did not displace; and he was now made deputy

hand of the effect so, as

The

steward to the company, as he had been before lieutenantviceroy to the nabob. A British resident at Moorshedabad was established as a controul. The company exercised their power over the revenue in the first instance, through the natives, but the British resident was in reality the great

mover.

If ever this nation stood in a situation of glory throughout Asia, it was in that moment. But as I have said, some material errours and mistakes were committed. After the formation of this plan, Lord Clive unfortunately did not stay long enough in the country to give consistency to the measures of reformation he had undertaken, but rapidly returned to England; and after his departure the government, that continued, had not vigour, or authority, to support the settlement then made; and considerable abuses began to prevail in every quarter. Another capital period in our history here commences. Those, who succeeded (though I believe one of them was one of the honestest men, that ever served the company, I mean governour Verelst) had not weight enough to poise the system of the service, and consequently many abuses and grievances again prevailedsupervisors were appointed to every district, as a check on the native collectors, and to report every abuse, as it should arise. But they, who were appointed to redress grievances, were themselves accused of being guilty of them. However the disorders were not of that violent kind, which preceded Mr. Hastings's departure, nor such as followed his return no mercenary wars—no mercenary revolutions, no extirpation of nations, no violent convulsions in the revenue, no subversion of antient houses, no general sales of any descriptions of men-none of these, but certainly such grievances as made it necessary for the company to send out another commission in 1769, with instructions pointing out the chief abuses. It was composed of Mr. Vansittart, Mr. Ford, and Mr. Scrafton. The unfortunate end of that commission is known to all the world: but I mention it in order to state, that the receipt of presents was considered as one of the grievances, which then prevailed in India; and that the supervisors under that commission were ordered upon no

account whatever to take presents. Upon the unfortunate catastrophe, which happened, the company was preparing to send out another for the rectification of these grievances, when parliament thought it necessary to supersede that commission to take the matter into their own hands, and to appoint another commission in a parliamentary way (of which Mr. Hastings was one) for the better government of that country. Mr. Hastings, as I must mention to your lordships, soon after the deposition and restoration of Jaffier Ally Cawn, and before Lord Clive arrived, quitted for a while the scene, in which he had been so mischievously employed, and returned to England to strengthen himself by those cabals, which again sent him out with new authority to pursue the courses, which were the natural sequel to his former proceedings. He returned to India with great power indeed; first, to a seat in council at Fort St. George, and from thence to succeed to the presidency of Fort William. On him the company placed their chief reliance. Happy had it been for them, happy for India, and for England, if his conduct' had been such as to spare your lordships and the Commons the exhibition of this day.

When this government, with Mr. Hastings at the head of it, was settled, Moorshedabad did still continue the seat of the native government, and of all the collections. Here the company was not satisfied with placing a resident at the durbar, which was the first step to our assuming the government in that country. These steps must be traced by your lordships, for I should never have given you this trouble, if it was not necessary to possess you clearly of the several progressive steps, by which the company's government came to be established and to supersede the native. The next step was the appointment of supervisors in every province, to oversee the native collector. The third was to establish a general council of revenue at Moorshedabad, to superintend the great steward Mahomed Reza Cawn. 1772 that council by Mr. Hastings was overturned, and the whole management of the revenue brought to Calcutta. Mahomed Reza Cawn, by orders of the company, was turned out of all his offices, and turned out for reasons and prin13

VOL. VII.

In

ciples, which your lordships will hereafter see; and at last the dewannee was entirely taken out of the native hands, and settled in the supreme council and presidency itself in Calcutta; and so it remained until the year 1781, when Mr. Hastings made another revolution, took it out of the hands of the supreme council, in which the orders of the company, an act of parliament, and their own act had vested it, and put it into a subordinate council-that is, it was entirely vested in himself.

Now your lordships see the whole of the revolutions. I have stated them, I trust, with perspicuity-stated the grounds and principles, upon which they were made-stated the abuses, that grew upon them-and that every revolution produced its abuse. You saw the native government vanish by degrees, until it was reduced to a situation fit for nothing but to become a private perquisite, as it has been to Mr. Hastings, and to be granted to whom he pleased. The English government succeeded, at the head of which Mr. Hastings was placed by an act of parliament, having before held the office of president of the council-the express object of both these appointments being to redress grievances; and within these two periods of his power, as president and governour-general, were those crimes committed, of which he now stands accused. All this history is merely by way of illustration-his crimination begins from his nomination to the presidency; and we are to consider how he comported himself in that station, and in his office of governourgeneral.

The first thing, in considering the merits or demerits of any governour, is to have some test, by which they are to be tried. And here, my lords, we conceive, that when a British governour is sent abroad, he is sent to pursue the good of the people as much as possible in the spirit of the laws of this country, which in all respects intend their conservation, their happiness, and their prosperity. This is the principle, upon which Mr. Hastings was bound to govern, and upon which he is to account for his conduct here.

His rule was, what a British governour, intrusted with the power of this country, was bound to do, or to forbear. If he

has performed, and if he has abstained, as he ought, dismiss him honourably acquitted from your bar otherwise condemn him. He may resort to other principles and to other maxims; but this country will force him to be tried by its laws. The law of this country recognizes that well-known crime, called misconduct in office; it is a head of the law of England, and, so far as inferiour courts are competent to try it, may be tried in them. Here, your lordships' competence is plenary; you are fully competent both to inquire into, and to punish the offence. And, first, I am to state to your lordships, by the direction of those, whom I am bound to obey, the principles, on which Mr. Hastings declares he has conducted his government; principles, which he has avowedfirst, in several letters written to the East-India Companynext, in a paper of defence, delivered to the House of Commons, explicitly; and more explicitly in his defence before your lordships. Nothing in Mr. Hastings's proceedings is so curious as his several defences; and nothing in the defences is so singular, as the principles, upon which he proceeds. Your lordships will have to decide not only upon a large, connected, systematick train of misdemeanours, but an equally connected system of principles and maxims of government, invented to justify those misdemeanours. He has brought them forward and avowed them in the face of day. He has boldly and insultingly thrown them in the face of the representatives of a free people, and we cannot pass them by without adopting them.

I am directed to protest against those grounds and principles, upon which he frames his defence; for, if those grounds are good and valid, they carry off a great deal at least, if not entirely the foundation of our charge. My lords, we contend, that Mr. Hastings, as a British governour, ought to govern on British principles, not by British forms-God forbid; for, if ever there was a case, in which the letter kills and the spirit gives life, it would be an attempt to introduce British forms and the substance of despotick principles together into any country. No. We call for that spirit of equity, that spirit of justice, that spirit of protection, that spirit of lenity, which ought to characterize every British