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Mr. Pitt declared, that he could not suffer the statement of Mr. Burke on a particular fact to pass unnoticed. The right honourable gentleman had stated, that those members of the judicature who were chosen out of that House, were, strictly speaking, appointed by the minister. If the right honourable gentleman meant generally to insinuate, that, in every act of the House, the influence of the minister was prevalent, he should not attempt to enter into the question, nor did he think such an insinuation decent or respectful to Parliament. But, with respect to the particular object immediately in the right honourable gentleman's contemplation, he wished the House to recollect for a moment what were the real circumstances of the case, before they suffered themselves to be led astray by the right honourable gentleman's misrepresentations. The fact was, that that House had no other interference in the choice of members for the East India judicature, than each gentleman furnishing a certain list of names, and every name that was found upon twenty of those lists was sent in one general list to the judges, who reduced that general list to the proper number by ballot; whence it followed, that so far from the minister having the absolute power of appointing the members of the judicature, it was possible that so small a minority as twenty might have the nomination.

Mr. BURKE said, that he could not avoid comparing the right honourable gentleman's manner of correcting him, to his having put his hand into a sack of grain, and produced a sample, to determine by that the goodness of the whole. But the authority of the right honourable gentleman alone, lent his contradiction weight. In effect, the judicature was chosen by the majority, and the majority only. Mr. Burke again resumed his argument against the bill of 1786; but on the gentlemen of the treasury-bench side of the House crying out Spoke, spoke,' he said he meant to move a new question, the question of adjournment. He proceeded to justify the above question, by declaring that the House in its present temper were not fit to decide on so important a question as that then under consideration. After a few more words to that effect, he

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motion, declaring, that the deciding a judgment by a casting vote was in the highest degree indecent and improper.

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Sir Richard Sutton said, that he must speak to order, and remonstrate against the right honourable gentleman's being suffered to proceed in so irregular a mammer.-The Speaker desired Mr. Burke to confine himself to explanation merely; or if he meant to move the question of adjournment, to point his argument to that motion. Mr. Fox vindicated the privilege which his right honourable friend had of moving the adjournWith regard to the objection made against his not having spoken agreeably to order, certainly the same objection was against any other member who had not observed the same rule precisely. He admitted likewise, that if one gentleman conformed to order it was equally the duty of every other.— The Speaker now said, Heaven forbid that any thing which came from the chair should be partially directed against one gen. tleman, and not against another under the same circumstances. The reason he had taken the liberty to observe what he did was, in consequence of the right honourable member having moved an adjournment of a question without having offered the least argument in its support. This he considered against the received rules of the House, and therefore he had taken the liberty to offer what he had done. At length a violent coughing took place, upon which

Mr. BURKE declared, that as what he had said could not be answered, so neither could it be coughed away. He bowed obedience to the chair, but he could wish that it might be understood that the maxim held good Summum jus summa injuria.' He added-I rise in support of the eternal principles of truth and justice, and those who cannot or dare not support them are endeavouring to cough them down.

A violent cry of Order, order!' immediately took place, after which the question of adjournment was put, and negatived without a division. The original question was then put, and the House divided: Yeas 21: Noes 128. So it passed in the negative.

AT

ARTICLES OF CHARGE AGAINST MR. HASTINGS.

February 19.

T the opening of the session, on the 23d of January, 1787, Mr. Burke gave notice that he should renew the proceed. ings against Mr. Hastings on the 1st of February. That and the following day were spent in examining Mr. Middleton and Sir Elijah Impey; and on Wednesday, the 7th, Mr. Sheridan opened the third charge against Mr. Hastings, viz. the resumption of the jaghires, and the confiscation of the treasures of the princesses of Oude, the mother and grandmother of the reigning nabob. The subject of this charge was peculiarly fitted for displaying all the pathetic powers of eloquence; and never were they displayed with greater skill, force, and elegance, than upon this occasion. For five hours and a half Mr. Sheridan kept the attention of the House (which from the expectation of the day was uncommonly crowded) fascinated by his eloquence; and when he sat down, the whole House, the members, peers, and strangers, involuntarily joined in a tumult of applause, and adopted a mode of expressing their approbation, new and irregular in that House, by loudly and repeatedly clapping with their hands. Mr. Burke declared it to be the most astonishing effort of eloquence, argument, and wit united, of which there is any record or tradition. Mr. Sheridan's motion was carried, on a division, by 175 against 68. On the 19th of February,

Mr. BURKE rose to bespeak the attention of the House to a matter of considerable importance, and which he thought it incumbent upon him to suggest, though he did not mean to conclude what he had to say with any formal notice or motion. The subject he wished to call their attention to, was the impeachment of Mr. Hastings, the proceedings on which were now arrived to that sort of length that seemed to make it necessary that some step

should be taken, in order to render the person and property of Mr. Hastings amenable to justice. At present, though a most respectable and decided majority of their committee had solemnly determined, that there was matter of impeachment in two of the principal, most serious, and most weighty articles, that had been exhibited before the parliament, or rather before the House of Commons, Mr. Hastings was at his full liberty, participating freely in all the enjoyments and pleasures of social life. After the House, therefore, had fixed substantially its stigma, which was surely a grave and considerable degree of censure, it became them, for the sake of their own justice, for the sake of justice to the party, and from a variety of considerations, to proceed, as soon as the circumstances of the case would admit, to put the matter in a way to have final judgment passed. The affairs of India, during which the facts criminally charged on Mr. Hastings had taken place, had been under the consideration of that House above seven years; and the proceedings relative to the impeachment had now been going on for two sessions, in the course of which, as he had before mentioned, two charges involving a considerable share of criminality, had been investigated and affirmed. In all matters of criminal justice, two things ought to be avoided with the utmost caution, precipitation and rashness in urging accusation and pushing forward to decision; and on the other hand unnecessary delay and tediousness in proceeding to obtain a trial of the charge, after it had been determined upon solemn and minute investigation of the alleged criminal facts, that there were strong grounds for accusation. The slowness of their deliberating upon the alleged criminal facts, and the cautious minuteness of their inquiry into their validity, were matters of notoriety; but those circumstances he considered as likely to give them advantage in their future proceedings towards the obtainment of judgment.

Mr. Burke declared he had not formed any distinct idea what would be the most advisable mode for the House to

pursue; but it certainly behoved them to take some steps to manifest to the people of Great Britain, whose eyes were fixed upon them and upon their measures in a matter of so much importance-as well as to let it go forth to the persons with a view to do justice to whom, though living in a remote quarter of the globe, that House had taken such proper pains-that they were in earnest, and that they intended to bring the prosecution to a serious issue, with all the dispatch that decency could warrant. In the present case, from perhaps a laudable candour, the House had not proceeded after the old established precedents in cases of impeachment, but had formed themselves into what might properly be called a committee of inquiry, in order to ascertain whether there were fit grounds of impeachment or not: they had now found that there were grounds, and having done so, the sooner they resorted to the ancient mode of proceeding the better. Their mode of proceeding hitherto, whatever difference of opinion there might be as to its propriety, every man who knew any thing of the usage of parliament in cases of impeachment, must agree was altogether new. What he had in contemplation to do, therefore, was, to move an impeachment in the House on some future day; and if it was agreed to, as he trusted it would necessarily be after what had passed, he should then move to lodge a notice in the House of Lords the tribunal before which the cause must necessarily go for trial-that the House of Commons had determined to impeach Warren Hastings, Esq. of high crimes and misdemeanors, and that they were employed in preparing the articles. In which case proper steps might be taken to prevent the party to be impeached, from quitting the kingdom, disposing of his property, alienating any sums of money, or taking any other step to evade the ends of justice. Mr. Burke said, that one circumstance which pointed out this, or some such proceeding, as absolutely necessary, was his having heard, that within short time one of the gentlemen from India, against whom some proceedings of a serious nature would be proposed to

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