"place charged Warren Haftings, late Governor General of "Bengal, with fundry high crimes and mifdemeanors, "and prefented to the Houfe feveral articles of charge "of high crimes and mifdemeanors against the faid Warren "Haftings.

"Your petitioner therefore humbly prays that he may be "heard in his defence to the feveral articles, and that he may be allowed a copy of the fame.

"And your petitioner, as in duty bound,

"Shall ever pray,

"WARREN HASTINGS."

Mr. Burke fignified his confent, provided that its contents Mr. Burke, could be complied with conformably to precedent. It was then moved that Mr. Haftings be permitted to be heard, " and that copies of the charges be granted him."

Sir Grey Cooper remarked that fuch precedents as he had Sir Grey found upon the journals, as to the proceeding in cafes of that Cooper. kind, appeared to merit the attention of the Houfe. He then read a few precedents, from the nearest of which to the prefent proceedings, it appeared that parties accufed had been indulged with a hearing, but that copies of the charges had not been granted. Sir Grey contended, that it would be impoffible to comply with the latter part of the motion.

Mr. Burke defired that the honourable Baronet would Mr. Burke, accept of his acknowledgements for fupplying him with precedents fo much in point, and coincided with him in the opinion, that copies of the charges could not be granted; or if they were, that they would prove of no ufe to Mr. Haftings, to whom he declared that he wifhed every degree of reasonable indulgence to be fhewn. It was well known that it had originally been his intention to have called his evidence firft, and then to have proceeded gradually, to let the charge grow out of the evidence; but the Houfe, in its wifdom; had thought proper to vote a different mode of proceeding, and to direct that the charges fhould be firft made, and then that he fhould proceed to fubftantiate them by evidence. Hence he had been reduced to the neceffity of altering his plan, and of making his charges as comprehensive as poffible, taking in and ftating every thing with which private information could furnish him. But it had fince appeared, that in feveral of the charges there was fuperfluous matter, which called for correction, and to omit which, he fhould himself move in the fubfequent stages of the bufinefs. He had, in one charge, accufed Mr. Haftings with not having called in and cancelled his Bengal bills; whereas the fact was (as appeared by papers laid on the table fince) that the bills were (as he conjectured they would be) all cancelled and difcharged. This, therefore,

was

Mr. Fox.

Mr. Chan

was to be set to rights. He defired the Houfe to recollect that they were proceeding as accufers, and that Mr. Hastings could only make a defence with fuccefs, where there exifted a power of acquittal.-If he were to make a defence there, nothing could be more evident than that he ought to have the benefit of council, and of calling witneffes to examine to facts. As he had only prayed to be heard himself, the cafe was otherwife. Mr. Burke reafoned upon the precedents that had been cited by Sir Grey, and fhewed that there was fome analogy between one of them and the proceeding then pending. He concluded with expreffing it as his opinion, that only the first part of the motion could be complied with.

Mr. Fox obferved, that the charges before the House were not articulated charges, but merely general collections of accufatory facts, out of which the real charges were to be extracted, and every body knew, that even after the Houfe had decided upon thofe real charges, articles fhort, fpecific, and pointed, where to be drawn and fent up to the Houfe of Lords, as the grounds of impeachment; unless a precedent could be adduced, to prove that under fuch peculiar circumstances copies of charges had been granted by that House to a party accufed, he should be of opinion that the house could not grant charges, loosely drawn, and which the Committee, to whom they were to be referred, would neceffarily alter materially.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt having referred the Houfe to two ellor Pitt. precedents upon their journals, remarked that the reasoning of the right honourable gentleman (if it bore any implication at all) carried with it a meaning pofitively oppofite to that which, doubtlefs, it was intended to convey. If when a charge had been formed in a dry, terfe, and clofe manner, it was neceffary to give a copy of it to the culprit, much more was it fo when it was dilated to fuch lengths as those before the House, when it was fo diffufe, fo detailed, and fo full of extraneous matter. The charges he was willing to admit contained great criminal matter, and fuch as it was highly incumbent on the Houfe to investigate and bring to a moft ftrict inquiry; but ftill they were fo filled with aggravations and unconnected details; they were fo confufed and complicated, fo irrelevant, and in many places fo unintelligible, that he thought it abfolutely impoffible for the Houfe at large to be able to feparate accurately and diftinctly thofe parts which were worthy of attention, from fuch as were entirely foreign from the main defign. As it was by all admitted that Mr. Haftings ought to be heard, it must alfo follow that he ought to have a copy of the charges delivered in against him, for it was only from thofe charges that

he

he could be able to judge what would be proper for him to fay to the House. From them alone he could judge what parts it would be proper for him to admit, what to deny, and what to juftify; nay, whether he might not demur to the whole. When he faid that there was much criminal matter contained in the charges, he did not mean to infinuate that he had formed any opinion, whether fuch criminal charges were well founded or not, he should be inclined to hope at least that they would appear otherwife; there being very serious charges made, the Houfe were bound to look into them with every poffible degree of circumfpection and acuteness, but that not more in favour of the charges than of the perfon accused. He offered feveral precedents to fhew that it had been always the uniform practice of the House to afford a copy of the charges to the party previous to the going into the evidence to fubftantiate fuch charges, and gave it as his opinion, that the prefent charges differed from all former ones, inasmuch as they were more diffused and general, and filled with more foreign matter than any which had ever before been offered. Under thefe circumstances, it feemed indifpenfably requifite that a copy fhould be allowed, notwithstanding that the laboured arguments of the honourable gentleınan, who thought proper to embrace the other fide of the queftion, had been fo earnestly brought forward in ftruggles to prevent this reafonable conceffion.

Mr. Burke remarked, that it behoved him to confefs a Mr. Burke. truth of which, undoubtedly, the Houfe was well perfuaded, and fully to admit his abfolute incapability of producing charges of fuch magnitude, importance, and variety of matter in a state of perfect correctnefs. Men of much greater abilites than he pretended to, could not have done it; in this as in many other cafes materiam non fuperabit opus; the plate was often better than the fashion, and thus he prefented the House with his rough ingots, and left it for them to polifh them and put them into fhape and form. The. right honourable gentleman, however, had made an admiffion and an objection. He had confeffed, (he meant not upon compulfion but voluntarily, and for which he thanked him) that the charges which he had brought forward, contained much matter of great and ferious criminality, that the honour of the House and the character of the nation were deeply interested in the iffue of the bufinefs, and that it became their indifpenfable duty to take care that fubftantial juftice was done, and if the guilt imputed were fully made out, that the party accufed fhould be brought to condign punishment. This was a fair and just confeffion on the part of the right honourable gentleman, and he was bappy to End, that confufed, complicated, irrelevant, and almoft unintelligible

intelligible as the right honourable gentleman had declared the charges to be in many parts. He nevertheless underftood them fufficiently to find out that they contained much matter of heinous criminal offence. The objection that had accompanied this admiffion, was, what he would next speak to. It was utterly impoffible for him, denied as he had been, his own mode of proceeding, by adducing evidence first, and then making the charges to rife, as it were, out of the evidence, to have drawn his charges in a fhorter compass, without actually rendering them ten times more liable to the objection of their being confufed and unintelligible. Great and obvious was the difference between crimes of a specific and afcertained nature, fuch as were defined and known fufficiently by their name alone, and fuch as were not; as, for inftance, high treafon and felony, oppofed to thefe, high crimes and mifdemeanors. Under the claffes of high treafon and felony, certain fpecific and known offences were arranged; but mifdemeanors comprehended a general class of offences incapable of precife definition, and depending altogether on circumftancial and detailed description. Hence all mifdemeanors were difficult to be made out in charge, and impoffible to be fo ftated as to be rendered intelligible, bat by amplified defcription. In the cafe under confideration, he had three things to make out; first that the transactions to be inade matter of charge, were mifdemeanors; next, by circumftances of aggravation, that they were high crimes and misdemeanors; and, laftly, that they were Indian misdemeanors. An infinite variety of detail was of confequence indifpenfably neceffary. To prove the mischiefs done in Benares, it was neceffary to prove that Benares had been a moft fertile province, and that it was a popular province, and that it was no longer either populous or fertile. So with refpect to the royal family at Oude, it was acceffary to prove their rank, and to prove what a difgrace expofing women naked in the market place was. [The Houfe laughed] The very impreffion the fact made on the Houfe proved the truth of his argument. To talk of expofing women of rank to the fight of the foldiery, was matter of laughter with us Europeans, and in that Houfe. In India it was the deepest difgrace; a difgrace, to efcape from which, hundreds had devoted themfelves victims to the pile, and lifted their willing hands to put a period to their existence, rather than ftand the chance of incurring it. All this was neceffary to be defcribed in argument to render it intelligible to the major part of that Houfe, who notoriously had paid no great attention to Indian affairs. It was impoffible to avoid large and circumftantial detail in his charges, to however fmall a compass the uable points they contained might be

capable

capable of being reduced. Whatever alteration they might appear to require, the right honourable gentleman had taught him that he ought not to be afhamed of their ftanding in need of amendment. In proof of this obfervation, he fhould beg leave to inftance the Irish propofitions which had been altered in toto in that Houfe, after the right honourable gentleman had introduced them, and a variety of bills, introduced by the right honourable gentleman that had been equally altered,

Mr. Fox remarked, that it could only be from want of Mr. Fox. leifure, that the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Pitt) had not been able to understand the charges laid upon the table by his right honourable friend. He believed no other man in that Houfe, who had looked into them ever fo flightly, would rife and fay he did not understand them. Thofe without doors, as well as thofe within, who had read them, would not deny that they were perfectly intelligible, however explanatory (for explanatory they neceffarily must be.) With regard to their not being relevant, he expected it would not be denied him, that the charges in their prefent caft and form contained much matter of criminal offence. That was all that was neceffary, because it was fufficient for the Committee to whom they were referred, to report that and then it became the duty of the House to draw out the criminal parts and fhape them into articles, as fit grounds of impeachment to be prefented to the Houfe of Lords. Whatever alteration might appear neceffary, that was a matter of fubfequent confideration. He defcribed the difficulties his right honourable friend had experienced in his progrefs to that ftage of the bufinefs, and faid, no man with lefs abilities than thofe of his right honourable friend could have furmounted them. As foon as he had brought the bufinefs in one fhape, it was ftated by the other fide of the Houfe, that the form of proceeding was wrong, and that another form must be adopted. His right honourable friend, thereupon, accommodated himself to the new mode, and followed it. The next time the bufinefs came on, the other fide changed it again, and again his right honourble friend adopted it. Sill new modes were propofed, new delays invented, new artifices played off to retard, impede, and embarrass. But the House and the Public muft fee through the whole. The right honourable gentleman oppofite to him had admitted that the charges bore on their face and in their body, much matter of heinous criminal offence, but he chose to complain of confufion and irrelevancy, and had gone the length of ftating that they were in fome parts utterly unintelligible. Why were thefe complaints urged? Because the guilt imputed was clearly understood; becaute VOL. XX,

it