next day, which was granted, and the Houfe of ragged fepoys who did not look to the adjourned. depofition of a Subah, and the plunder of a province. FOURTH DAY. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15. The Court being opened with the ufual folemnities*, and Mr. Hattings called to the bar, Mr. Burke refumed his introductory addrefs to the Court. He commenced by obferving, that in his fpeech of the preceding day, he had thought it neceffary, for the precifion of their future judgment, to defcribe at large the fituation and manners of the people of India, though that description did not tend directly to the crimination of Mr. Haftings. Though he had spoken of the tyranny of their Subahs, Mr. Haftings was no farther culpable, in that refpect, than in having followed their steps with a SERVILE FIDELITY: he had mentioned the weak nefs of fome particular inftitutions; but there Mr. Haftings was only to blame, where he had abused that weakness in the pursuance of interested purpofes. This general ftatement, however, was neceffary to the underftanding of the fpccific facts; which, with their fubitantiation by evidence, fhould, in due time, be fubmitted to the Court. Mr. Burke then proceeded to illuftrate thefe general pofitions, by entering into a detailed account of the tranfactions in india, from 1760 to the year 1774, when Mr. Haftings returned to India in the character of President of the Supreme Council. He dwelt at large on the feveral revolutions which took place in that period, when, by the intervention of the Company's troops, the Sovereignty was transferred from Sujah Dowlab to Meer Jaffier, and again from Meer Jaffer to his fon-in-law, Coffim Ally Cawn. In the latter of thefe, Mr. Haflings, who was then Refident at the Durbar, had been employed. Treachery, he said, was found neceffary to effectuate the purposes of the English, and therefore the affistance of Warren Haftings was effentially requifite, He dwelt alio, at length, on the oppreffion of Mahomed Reza Cawn, the famine which fucceeded, and the events in general which took place before the appointment of the Supreme Council. But through a detail fo various and complicated it would be vain to follow him. On fpeaking of the appointment and character of Mr. Haftings, the conduct of this gentleman, he faid, had been distinguished for an adherence, not to the general principles which actuate mankind, but to a kind of The æra, Mr. Burke obferved, of Euro peans first landing in Hindoftan, was not lefs remarkable than it might have been glorious, if proper measures had been purfued; if the discoveries of a more enlighten-EOGRAPHICAL MORALITY—a set of prined part of the globe had been communicated to its innocent inhabitants; and if the reformed Chriftianity of this Inland had been properly inculcated. But this unfortunately was not done. In the place of friendly communication, the traces of European accefs were marked by treachery and rapine. Thofe who first advanced, had undoubtedly to pafs over a vast river, with the depth of which they were wholly unacquainted; but by frequent practice, a bridge was laid, 'over which the lame might pass, and the blind might grope their way.' The arts of plunder might have been fuppofed to have reached their height under the command of Lord Clive, but when that nobleman returned to Europe, it appeared that he left an abundant crop of fucceffors behind. All there too were inured to the practices of rapine, and encouraged to fuch a degree by repeated fuccefs, that there was not a captain of a band ciples fuited only to a particular climate, S that what was peculation and tyranny in Europe, loft both its effence and its name in India. The nature of things changed, in the opinion of Mr. Haftings; and as the feamen have a cuftom of dipping perfons crofing the EQUINOCTIAL, to by that operation every one who went to INDIA was to be un BAPTIZED, and to life every idea of religion and morality which had been impreffed on him in EUROPE. But this doctrine, he hoped, would now no longer be advanced. It was the duty of a British Governor to enforce British laws; to correct the opinions and practices of the people, not to conform his opinion to their practice; and their Lordfhips would therefore undoubtedly try Mr. Haflings by the laws with which they were acquainted, not by laws which they did not know. But Mr. Hailings, had pleaded the local cuftoms of Hindoitan, as requiring the There were prefent, Barons 54-Bishops 17-Viscounts, Earls, and Marquiffes, 68Dukes 14-Judges 9-the Lord Chancellor, the Royal Dukes, with the Prince of Wales, clefed the proceffion-Total 173; being a greater number than appeared on any of the former days. coercion coercion of arbitrary power. He claimed ARBITRARY POWER. From whom, in the name of all that was ftrange, could he derive, or how had he the audacity to claim, fuch a power? He could not have derived it from the Eaft India Company, for they had none to confer. He could not have received it from his Sovereign, for the Sovereign had it not to bestow. It could not have been given by either Houfe of Parliament--for it was unknown to the British Conftitution! Yet Mr. Haftings acting under the affumption of this authority, had avowed his rejection of British Acts of Parliament, had gloried in the fuccefs which he pretended to derive from their violation, and had on every occafion attempted to justify the exercife of arbitrary power in its greatest extent. [Mr. Burke being greatly exhaufted, Mr. Adam read a letter to this effet from Mr. Haftings to the Court of Directors.} Having thus avowedly acted in oppofition to the laws of Great Britain, he fled, but in vain, for fhelter to other laws and other ufages. Would he appeal to the Mahomedan law for his juftification? In the whole Koran there was not a fingle text which could justify the powers he had affumed. Would he appeal to the Gentoo Code? There the effort would alfo be vain; a fyftem of ftricter justice, or more pure morality, there did not exift. It was therefore equal whether he filed for fhelter to a British Court of Juftice or a Gentoo Pagoda; he in either inftance ftood convicted as a daring viclator of the laws. If he appealed, indeed, to the practices of the country, it would be granted, that other peculators and other tyrants had exifted before Warren Haftings; but that was by no means a justification of his conduct: on the contrary, as they did not pretend to act according to the laws, fo they were punished by their fuperiors for acting in oppofition to the laws. Mr. Burke here recited fome inftances where fimilar offences had been punished in Officers of finance by the Sovereigns of the district, as being contrary to the laws of Hindoftan. He concluded a speech of three hours and ten minutes, by an apology to the Court for the time he had occupied. If he had been diffufe, he hoped their Lordships would attribute it folely to an anxious with that justice should take place in a caufe, the most complicated and momentous, perhaps, that ever was fubmitted to any Court. He should now proceed, he faid, to fubftantiate the fcveral charges, beginning with that corrupt rapacity from which the delinquency had fprung, and proceeding from thence to the other branches of guilt, which would appear to have been produced from that ruling principle, both in the internal government of Bengal, and in the other provinc's, which he had fo fignificantly called his EXTERNAL RESOURCES. Mr. Burke appeared to be greatly exhausted by the delivery of this fpeech. The Court adjourned to Monday. FIFTH Day. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18. The Lords having taken their feats, Mr. Burke refumed his fpeech. He faid, that the government of Mr. Haftings was founded in bribery and corruption; that his administration was one continued fcene of peculation. Nunducemar, a man of high rank, had become the accufer of Mr. Haftings; but he was soon taken off by a profecution for felony. But Nunducomar was not the only accufer; if every thing that man had faid of Mr. Haftings had been fcandaloufly falfe, ftill it appeared upon the oath of one of the most illuftrious Ladies, or Princeffes in Bengal, that Mr. Haftings had received from her, or her agents, a bribe of 40,000l. sterling. This oath, and this charge of peculation, were upon record in the archives of the EaftIndia Company; but no trace could be found of any answer made by Mr. Hastings to a charge fo injurious to his character. * When Mr. Burke's argument led him forth against arbitrary power, he called together all the forces of Truth and Equity-not only the Genius of England, but of all Afta, clamorous on his fide-The Koran-the Institutes of Timur-the Gentoo Code-all, at every idea of tyrannical ufurpation, as ftrong and ftedfaft as our Statutes at Large.-In fhort, faid he, "Talk to me any where of Power, and I'll tell you of Protection! Mention a "Magiftrate, and the idea follows of Property! Show me any Government, and you are to fue the propoful intereft of thofe governed!-Power conftituted otherwife is a monfter-that is impofuible !-in every fyftem, where there is any notion of the Justice of "God, or the Good of Mankind! “To aft or think otherwife is blafphemy to religion, no less than uproar in local order! "For "Every good and perfect gift is of God;"-and what good g ft of God to Man can *be more perfect, than the innate idea of Juftice and Mercy-the Law written in our "Hearts--the PRIMUM VIVENS, the ULTIMUM MORIENS, of every being that has the boait of reason!' There There was alfo evidence, he obferved, of a bribe of 40,000l. more, received for a judgment pronounced by Mr. Haftings, in a caufe wherein the half-brother of a deceased Rajah, and an adopted fon of the fame Rajah, were concerned; they both claimed the inheritance of the deceased, which was of immense value; for he had died poffeffed of a tract of land equal in extent to all the northern counties of England, Yorkshire included. The fyftem of peculation pursued by Mr. Haftings had met with many checks, from the integrity of Gen. Clavering, Col. Monson, and Mr. Francis; but it had extended so far, that it could not be concealed from those who felt for the honour of the British name and for humanity. Mr. Haftings knew this, and having reafon to apprehend that the enquiry inftituted by Parliament into delinquencies on the coaft of Coromandel, would at last reach Bengal, he fuddenly had recourse to an expedient for screening himself from the resentment of his conftituents, by making them gainers by his peculation. Finding himself on the eve of detection, he paid into the Company's treafury a vast sum of money which he had received contrary to law; but then he said he did not receive it for his own use, but for that of the Company. However, there was in this instance a circumstance that seemed to contradict his affertion, "That he had received the money for the ufe of the Company :" it was this;-When he paid the money into the treafury at Calcutta, he took bonds for it; fo that, in fact, the Company, to whom this money was faid to belong, was made debtor to Mr. Haftings for the full amount of it. On his being questioned at home by the Court of Directors, and afked why he had taken bonds for money not his own, his anfwer was, "That he did not know; he could not tell at that distance of time (less than three years); it might be to prevent the curious at Calcutta from being acquainted with the proceedings of the ftate; that he ought not to be preffed now for an account of motives which he no longer remembered, and of which he could not give any account now, as his papers were in India." Peculation slept for fome time, whilft Mr. Haftings had a majority of the Council against him. But Gen. Clavering and Col. Monfon having been removed by death, and Mr. Francis, harraffed and tired of his fituation, having refigned, the Council then confifted of only Mr. Haftings and Mr. Wheler; and the former having a casting voice, had in his own perfon a majority in the Council; or, in other words, the whole Government of India was vested in himself alone. Then it was that he refolved to open anew the channels of peculaVOL. XIII, tion. Six provincial Councils had been established for the collection and management of the public revenue; but thefe Councils he abolished, and in their room established one fingle Council, under whofe management was placed the administration of the whole revenue of the kingdoms of Bengal, Bahar, and Orixa. This new Council he compofed entirely of his own creatures and favourites; but as it was neceffary they should have for their Secretary fome native, acquainted with the laws and cuftoms of the country, he appointed one who was entirely devoted to him.This was the famous, or rather infamous Congo Burwant Sing. Of this man there were not two opinions; all the friends as well as the enemies of Mr. Haftings agreeing, that he was the most atrocious villain that India ever produced. The Members of the new Council foon felt that they were cyphers, and mere tools to this deteftable inftrument of corruption. This they themselves expressed in a letter, which Mr. Burke read, in which they faid that he dived into the fecrets of families, availed himself of them, and had it in his power to lay the whole country under contribution. Such was the confidential agent of Mr. Haftings. Before that Gentleman had appointed him Secretary to the new Council, he knew the public opinion of the man; and yet he wrote to the Court of Directors, that this Congo Sing was generally fpoken ill of, but that he knew no harm of him: He knew, however, that he was a man of great abilities, and therefore he employed him. Next in infamy to Congo Burwant Sing, and second only to him in villainy, was Devi Sing; one of the most shocking monsters that ever stained the page of hiftory.—This villain, driven on account of his infamous administration from one important station which he held, was able to obtain, through his partner in iniquity, Congo Burwant Sing, a moft lucrative fituation under the Company : he was admitted at a time when he was a bankrupt, and owed 210,000l. to farm the revenue of a very large diftrict. One part of his instructions was, that he fhould not raise the rents, or impofe new taxes upon the inhabitants; but fuch inftructions did not weigh much with a man, who knew that if he broke through them, he was fure of impunity, through the powerful influence of Congo Burwant Sing. He therefore refolved by plunder and rapine of every fort, to make the most of his bargain. He immediately raised the rents, contrary to his inftructions:-he threw the people of quality, as well as others, into prifon, and there made them give him bonds to what amount he pleased, as the purchase of their their liberty. These bonds he afterwards put in force.-Firft, he put their demefne lands up to auction, and they were knocked down at one year's purchase, though the ufual price of land in that country was ten. The real purchafer was himself.—Next he fold the lands they held by leafe; next the lands given by the then owners, or their ancestors, for the pious and humane purposes of providing for the fick and infirm; lastly, he sold even the very ground deftined for the burial of the owners; and this was to them, from the nature of their education and religion, the most heart-rending of all their loffes.-This, however, was not all.—He made ufe of a species of pillory, which in India is more dreadful than death, because it drives people from their caft. Those who have been disgraced by this pillory, no matter whether with or without just caufe, are, as it were, excommunicated; they are difowned by their own tribe, nay, by their own nearest relations, and are driven into the fociety of the outcafts of all fociety. This pillory is a bullock, with a drum on each fide, and the person who is once feated on it, is ever after difgraced and degraded, he and all his pofterity. Devi Sing had this tremendous bullock walking through the villages; at his approach the inhabitants all fied: and fo general was their desertion of their habitations, that an Englishman travelled 1 5 miles without feeing a fire, or a light in any houfe. The poor myots, or husbandmen, were treated in a manner that would never gain belief, if it was not attefted by the records of the Company; and Mr. Burke thought it neccffary to apologize to their Lordships for the horrid relation, with which he would be obliged to harrow up their feelings: the worthy Commiffioner Patterson, who had authenticated the particulars of this relation, had withed that for the credit of human nature, he might have drawn a veil over them; but as he had been font to enquire into them, he muft, in difcharge of his duty, ftate thofe particulars, however fhocking they were to his feelings. The cattle and corn of the husbandmen were fold for less than a quarter of their value, and their huts reduced to afhes! the unfortunate owners were obliged to borrow from ufurers, that they might discharge their bends, which had unjustly and illegally been extorted from them while they were in confinement; and fuch was the determination of the infernal fiend, Devi Sing, to have those bonds difchanged, that the wretched husbandmen were obliged to borrow money, not at 20, or 30, or 4, or 50, but at SIX HUNDRED per cent. to fatisfy him! Those who could not raise the money, were moft cruelly tortured: cords were drawn tight round their fingers, till the flesh of the four on each hand was actually incorporated, and become one folid mafs: the fingers were then separated again by wedges of iron and wood driven in between them.Others were tied two and two by the feet, and thrown across a wooden bar, upon which they hung, with their feet uppermost; they were then beat on the foles of the feet, till their toenails dropped off. They were afterwards beat about the head till the blood gufhed out at the mouth, nose, and ears; they were also flogged upon the naked body with bamboo canes, and prickly bushes, and, above all, with fome poisonous weeds, which were of a most cauitic nature, and burnt at every touch.-The cruelty of the monster who had ordered all this, had contrived how to tear the mind as well as the body; he frequently had a father and fon tied naked to one another by the feet and arms, and then flogged till the skin was torn from the flesh; and he had the devilish fatiffaction to know that every blow muft hurt ; for if one escaped the fon, his fenfibility was wounded by the knowledge he had that the blow had fallen upon his father: the fame torture was felt by the father, when he knew that every blow that miffed him had fallen upon his fon. The treatment of the females could not be defcribed:-dragged forth from the inmoft receffes of their houfes, which the religion of the country had made fo many fanctuaries, they were expofed naked to public view; the virgins were carried to the Court of Juftice, where they might naturally have looked for protection; but now they looked for it in vain; for in the face of the Minifters of juftice, in the face of the spectators, in the face of the fun, thofe tender and modest virgins were brutally violated. The only difference between their treatment and that of their mothers was, that the former were difhonoured in the face of day, the latter in the gloomy receffes of their dungeons. Other females had the nipples of their breasts put in a cleft bamboo, and torn off. What modefty in all nations most carefully conceals, this monster revealed to view, and confumed by flow fires; nay fome of the monstrous tools of this monster Devi Sing had, horrid to tell! carried their unnatural brutality fo far as to drink in the fource of generation and life *. Here Mr. Burke dropped his head upon *In this part of his fpeech Mr. Burke's defcriptions were more vivid-more harrowingand more horrific-than human utterance on either fact or fancy, perhaps, ever formed be fore. his hands a few minutes; but having recovered himself, faid, that the fathers and hufbands of the hapless females were the most harmless and industrious set of men. Content with fcarcely fufficient for the fupport of nature, they gave almost the whole produce of their labour to the Eaft-India Company : thofe hands which had been broken by perfons under the Company's authority, produced to all England the comforts of their morning and evening tea; for it was with the rent produced by their induftry, that the inveitments were made for the trade to China, where the tea which we ufe was bought. He then called upon their Lordships to prevent the effects of the Divine indignation upon the British empire, by bringing to juítice the man who could employ fo infernal an agent. Thofe wretched hufbandmen would, with thofe fhattered hands lifted up to Heaven, call down its vengeance upon their undoers: he conjured their Lordships to avert that vengeance, by punishing them who had so grefsly abufed the power given them by this country. Mr. Burke was here taken ill; but he foon recovered, and was proceeding, when he was feized with a cramp in his ftomach, and was difabled from going on. He was foon relieved from his pain, but was too exhaufted to be able to proceed. Lord Derby, on a nod from the Chancellor and the Prince of Wales, went to Mr. Burke; who, yielding to his Lordship and other friends, agreed to defer the rest of his fpeech till next day. SIXTH DAY. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19. After the ufual ceremonies, Mr. Burke rofe and proceeded upon the remaining part of the charges. At the conclufion, he made a moft folemn appeal to the honour, the dignity, the juftice, and the humanity of the Court, to enter impartially into the great cause which was before them, and to determine accordingly *. Mr. Fox rofe, and stated to their Lordships, that he was directed by the Committee to fubmit to their Lordships, that it was their fore. The agitation of most people was very apparent—and Mrs. Sheridan was so overpowered, that the fainted. On the fubject of the Minifters of these infernal enormities, he broke out with the fineft animation! "My Lords," exclaimed Mr. Burke, " let me for a moment quit my delegated charac"ter, and fpeak entirely from my perfonal feelings and conviction. I am known to have had "much experience of men and manners--in active life, and amidst occupations the most va"rious !-From that experience, I now proteft-I never knew a man who was bad, fit for "fervice that was good! There is always fome difqualifying ingredient mixing and spoiling the "compound! The man feems paralytic on that fide! His mufcles there have loft their very tone, and character!-They cannot move! In fhort, the accomplishment of any thing good, " is a phyfical impoffibility for fuch a man. There is decrepitude as well as diftortion-he "COULD NOT if he would, is not more certain, than he woULD NOT, if he could!" 66 Shocking as are the facts which Mr. Burke related, and which he fays he finds recorded in the account taken by Mr. Patterson, who was appointed Commiffioner to enquire into the circumstances of this dreadful bufinefs, and of a rebellion which took place in consequence, Mr. Burke fays, of the abovementioned cruelties; our readers must fee that Mr. Haftings cannot be refponsible for them, unlefs it fhall be proved that he was privy to, and countenanced the barbarities. "I charge (cried he) Warren Haftings, in the name of the Commons of England, "here affembled, with High Crimes and Misdemeanors !-I charge him with Fraud, Abuse, "Treachery, and Robbery !-I charge him with Cruelties unheard-of, and Devastations "almost without a name!--I charge him with having fcarcely left in India-what will "prove Satisfaction for his guilt!" "And now, (added he, in language which faintly hearing, we almoft tremble to convey) " and now, (added he) I address myself to this Assembly, with the most perfect reliance on "the Juftice of this High Court, Amongst you, I fee a venerable and Religious Band, "whofe province and whofe duty it is-to venerate that Government which is established "in piety and mercy. To them, what must have been the principles of Mr. Haftings? "Amongst you, I fee the Judges of England, the Deliverers of Law founded on equal Juftice. To them, what must have been the Ufurpations, the Tyranny, the Extortions of Warren Haftings? "Amongit you, I defcry an illuftrious and virtuous train of Nobles-whofe Forefathers have fought and died for the Conftitution! men who do even less honour to their Children ́ $ 2 than |