Mr. Chan Friday, 2d June. Previous to the refumption of the adjourned debate on the queftion refpecting the Rohilla war, a conversation took place relative to the correfpondence between the Governor in Chief and Mr. Middleton. Mr. Francis ftated that new circumftances had come out that the correfpondence was not in the cuftody of a noble Lord (North) but that an offer had been made to deliver it into his hands for the purpose of infpection; that it had been ftudiously denied to the Court of Directors, although Mr. Haftings had faid that this correfpondence would do honour and fervice to Mr. Middleton, and reflect credit upon himself for having felected fo able a man for the truft which he had committed to his hands. Mr. Chancellor Pitt contended that the debate was procellor Pitt. ceeding with great irregularity, becaufe no queftion was before the Houfe, and therefore he moved the order of the day. Mr. Fran cis. The order of the day was accordingly called for, and the honourable St. Andrew St. John took his feat at the table, The adjourned motion was then read as follows: "That this Committee having confidered the faid article, and "examined evidence on the fame, are of opinion that there "are grounds fufficient to charge Warren Haftings with "high crimes and mifdemeanors upon the matter of the faid "article." Mr. Francis adverted to the infidious furmifes thrown out touching the improper motives of the moft ftrenuous opponents of Mr. Haftings; he enumerated thofe perfons who had chiefly diftinguished themselves by fuch oppofition. Sir J. Clavering and Colonel Monfon were gentlemen whofe characters, he was convinced, ftood as high in the opinion of all men, as it was poffible for their heft and dearest friends to defire them to ftand. He meant not to defcribe them in terms of high-flown panegyric, but in plain English; he believed them to be two of the most incorruptible men that were ever entrusted by their country in high ftations. They were men who carried from England to India characters unimpeached, and they were men to whom their refidence in India had brought an acceffion of fame, by the difplay which it had given of their integrity and independence. These gentlemen, as well as himfelf, went forth to India, not only well difpofed to Mr. Haftings, but actuated by high reverence for his abilities. So far from having previously defigned and fettled the oppofition which they afterwards gave to his neafures, they went forth with confidence in the virtue and good intentions of Mr. Haftings, that he would chearfully co-operate with them in eftablishing the new conftitution which 3 which they carried out. It was a fact which came within the knowledge of feveral perfons in this country, that in order to conciliate the mind of Mr. Haftings to the new government, and to fhew that it was not their wish to institute a captious oppofition to his meafures, Sir John Clavering afked in the closet for fome mark of His Majefty's favour to carry out to Mr. Haftings, that he might know and feel that in abridging the power of the Governor in Chief, there was nothing perfonal against Mr. Haftings. There was no jea-loufy nor enmity in the breafts of Sir John Clavering, or of Colonel Monfon, arifing either from ambition, or from rivalship. They did not look forward to the recall of Mr. Haftings as the means of their own aggrandizement. And if they did not covet the fituation of Mr. Haftings; if they were not within its reach, how much farther was he from the poffibility of reaching it if he had the ambition; and how far therefore muft he have been from oppofing Mr. Haftings on that ground, if he was poffeffed either of common sense or of reafon? It was not the effect of preconceit; it was not original ill will, or enmity; it was not previous bad opinion; but it was the obfervation, and fcrutiny of the measures of Mr. Haftings which determined General Clavering, Colonel Monfon, and himself, to oppofe the fanguinary fyftem. Concerning the motives of his right honourable friend who had brought forward the prefent charges, he might fpeak with equal confidence. He, furely, could not be moved by ambition or rivalfhip; he could have no defire to fill the ftation of Mr. Haftings, nor any perfonal reafon to oppofe his government. As it was impoffible that he could be benefited by the oppofition; as it was impoffible that he could have any intereft in bringing forward the prefent laborious inquiry, unless the Committee admitted that his motive was public juftice, the love of humanity, and the deteftation of crimes by which millions were doomed to fuffer; to what poffible fource could they trace the prefent inquiry, and the fteady oppofition of his right honourable friend? There was but one other fource, and that was infanity. With respect to the Rohilla war, he felt it neceffary to obferve, that the argument of Mr. Haftings, "that the Ro"hillas were not a nation" was fallacious in the extreme. They were a people capable of fending 60,000 fighting men to the field. A body capable of doing that, merited, in his mind, the name of a people. What must the number of that people be, who, exclufive of the women, of the old men, and of the children, was capable of fending an army of 60,000 into the field? They were a people numerous and happy, habituated to induftry, and poffeffing the comforts of a well cultivated and a prolific country. Such was the peo ple Mr. Grenville. ple Mr. Haftings made a folemn contract with Sujah Dowlah to exterminate. Contrary to the orders of the Company, contrary to policy, to juftice, he employed the arms of the Company in the inhuman office of extirpating this whole race of men. Mr. Francis examined the anfwer of Mr. Haftings to each of the charges.-He denied that the fignaturę of Sir Robert Barker could be confidered as a guarantee, and he averred that the whole was no more than a covenant, and contract to extirpate the people for forty lacks of rupees. He endeavoured to fhew, by paffages from the evidence of Colonel Champion, feveral of which he read, that the war was conducted with as much inhumanity as the principle on which it was begun; and having urged these things from the evidence of thofe who had been employed by Mr. Haftings, and who had been examined at the bar, he recalled an expreffion of his right honourable friend (Mr. Burke), that in the decifion of the Houfe on this question there was no middle path. There was no juftifying of the conduct of Mr. Haftings, and leaving that of his right honourable friend (Mr. Burke) without a ftain. If his right honourable friend thought this, how much more muft he confider himfelf involved in the decifion, fince he not only now most steadily agreed with him, and feconded him in every one of the charges he had brought, but through the whole of his refidence in India he had oppofed the meafures now adduced as matter of accufation against that gentleman. He defired therefore to be confidered as implicated in the question, and that his honour and opinions were at ftake. Nor were his only; the opinions and honour of his lamented friends and colleagues, Sir John Clavering and Colonel Monson, were alfo involved, and gentlemen in deciding this day on Mr. Haftings, decided upon all. Mr. Grenville faid, that this being an adjourned question, he fhould take the liberty to animadvert on what was faid the day before by his honourable and learned friend (Mr. Hardinge) who had imputed to a noble Lord near him, that he had affumed the juftice that he might debate the policy of the war. With humble deference to his honourable and learned friend, he must be permitted to fay that it was effential to the argument on the policy, that the juftice flould be admitted. The juftice of the war was a question to be difcuffed, but undoubtedly in the difcuflion of the whole of the charge refpecting the Rohilla war, it was effential to argue fimply on the policy, without reference to the justice. For his own part he was ready to avow his opinion, that he thought the war was perfectly juft, as well as political. The Rohillas were fituated in the adjacency of the Vizier's dominions, and the Vizier was our barrier against the Mah rattas. rattas. It was certainly a matter of policy to ftrengthen the frontier, and in all queftions of war between independent nations, the conqueror would not think himself bound to meature his redrefs merely by the aggreffion, or to proportion his gain to the injury he had fuftained. The Rohillas refufed the payment of 40 lacks of rupees to our ally, the Vizier; perhaps ftrict juftice demanded that no more than thefe forty lacks fhould have been demanded from them, but conquerors think themfelves juftified in demanding more than the fum of the original injury. Of this principle between independent nations at war, it would be idle to demand inftances; it was univerfally prevalent. In the peace of 1763, we had manifefted it. The French were the aggreffors; they had made fome encroachments on the back of our American fettlements; but in the war, providence having crowned our arms with fuccefs, we, demanded and procured on the peace, the furrender of the whole of the French poffeffions on the continent of America. The question was not therefore fo much about the confequences of the Rohilla war, as about the original juftice of it. What was the precife cafe? Our ally, whofe dominions we had by folemn treaty agreed to guarantee, received an aggreffion. He was injured by a fet of people who had it in their power to be his dangerous enemy. They might join with the Mahrattas, and from that moment his country was infecure. They owed him a fum, of which they refufed him the payment. There was both an aggreffion and a political alarm. The Vizier had caufe, not only for refentment but jealoufy; and the English having the fame political interefts, as well as being bound by treaty, were of courfe obliged to go with him into the war. The juftice and policy of the war went hand in hand-That war was just which originated in an aggreffion-and that war war political which feemed to ftrengthen a frontier, to take off a fufpicious and ill-difpofed neighbour who had it in his power, and who betrayed the inclination to favour the views of an avowed enemy. If, therefore, we admitted the juftice of the war, we had nothing to do with the conduct of it. It was no more poffible to charge Mr. Haftings with the cruelties committed under the aufpices of Sujah Dowlah in Rohilcund, than to charge him with the enormities committed by the Mahrattas in the wars in which they were engaged. It was impoffible to calculate to what abfurdity this doctrine would proceed. Mr. Haftings certainly might, turning the arms of England against his ally Sujah Dowlah, have checked his inhumanities, but he had no other means. Mr. Grenville contended that the Company were bound to guarantee the treaty between the Rohillas and the VOL. XX. Vizier Mr. Har dinge. Mr. An- Vizier; and as that turned the whole of the queftion, the fact precifely was, that in the treaty to which Sir Robert Barker put his fignature, the Rohillas would not truft the Vizier, whom they confidered as faithlefs; nor would he Cruit them; he branded them with every epithet of treachery; and in this mutual diftruft the English became the guarantee. The attempts made to explain away the validity of this treaty, and particularly to explain the fhare which Sir Robert Barker had in it, as not pledging the Company, were not fatisfactory to his mind. The Company, in his opinion, were pledged; and though the thing was not concluded with all the formality of an European treaty, it had all that the cuftoms and ufage of India required. It was needlefs to enter upon all the extraneous and foreign matter which had very improperly been introduced into this queftion. He confidered it as highly improper that on the day when they were arguing on a fingle article of the voluminous body of charges, the right honourable gentleman thould have gone at full length into all the matter of accufation which he had brought; and no less than three-fourths of his long fpeech the day before had been occupied with the enumeration of matter not applicable to the Rohilla war. In like manner his honourable and learned friend (Mr. Hardinge) had indulged himfelf, and had again alluded to that great character, Lord Clive, to infinuate that general character was not to be fet off against particular charges. He faid he had found himfelf fully occupied in making himfelf completely matter of the fingle charge before the Committee, and he thought it highly indecorous that any other matter fhould be coupled with that article. The refult of his very deliberate inveftigation of this queftion, was, his conviction of the perfect innocence, and of the merit of Mr. Haflings. Mr. Hardinge remarked, that he certainly had accufed the noble Lord with inverting the true order of the difcuffion in regard to the juice and the policy of the war; for he had aflumed the justice, in order to debate on the policy; whereas, in his opinion, it was his firft duty to prove the justice, In fo far as no war could or cught to be holden as political, the foundation of which was not wife. In regard to his mention of Lord Clive, whofe name by the bye he never did mention without profound reverence for his memory, he had done it only to fhew that the House of Commons had not confidered general good characters to weigh with them against particular charges. Mr. Anftruther pronounced it ominous to the Government of India, that two members of the new Board of Control fhould have given an opinion fo decidedly for the fyftem, which this Houfe had already, oftener than once, and in term |