therefore he moft ftrongly reccommended it to the learned and right honourable gentleman to abandon alfo the new-eftablifhed judicature, which tended to deprive our eaftern fervants of the right of trial by jury, and, as fuch, was moft odious and difagreeable. Mr. Dempfier faid, that he did not oppofe the different Mr. Demp parts of the bill on account of the effects it might have on iter. the minds of the people of India alone, but becaufe the law was an improper law to be made in Great Britain, and a dif grace to the ftatute book of a free country. Mr. Dundas replied, that fo far from the new judicature Mr. Dunbeing confidered in the light mentioned by the honourable das. gentleman in India, it was in general effeemed as the very best and only proper mode of trial that could poffibly be adopted. He re da a paper from India, ftating that it was there confidered as a moft judicious and fair inftitution, including alf the advantages of the very beft fpecial jury, and in a peculiar degree eligible in taking the trial out of the hands of uninformed men, and placing it in those of perfons, who, from their rank and occupations were above all fort of prejudice, and were befides qualified to judge of political tranfactions, and who were alfo chofen in a way fo highly refpectable and impartial. He concluded with declaring that he was ready to meet all objections to this mode of trial, and he was fortified in his opinion by the authority of thofe perfons who had always been diftinguifhed by their attachment to the right of trial by jury. The motion was then put and carried. iham. The Houfe went into a Committee of Supply, when Mr. Marfham moved that a fum of fourteen hundred Mr Marpounds be granted for the purpose of relieving fuch perfons as had fuffered by the blowing up of the powder mills at Feverfham: the cafe of thofe perfons had, he faid, been referred to a Committee, and that Committee had reported the damage to be to the amount of the fum he had moved for. The Marquis f Gratam faid, he had been on the Commit- The Martee, and he was by no means an advocate for any light and quis of inconfiderable difpofal of public money, yet in the prefent cafe he thought the fufferers highly entitled; nor did he think that any perfon could, with greater propriety, move for the relief now demanded, than the reprefentative for the county. The question was carried. As foon as the Houfe was refumed, Graham. Scotland. The Lord Advocate of Scotland, after making an introduc- The Lord tory fpeech on the fubject, moved that a farther addition Advocate fhould be made to the falary of the Lords of Seffion and Barons of the Exchequer in Scotland, and that certain other Judges, who had at prefent no falaries, but were maintained VOL. XX. H by Mr. Beautoy. Mr. Chan by fees, fhould be appointed falaries. The fubject matter of thefe motions he faid he fhould move to refer to the Committee of Supply on the enfuing Wednesday, to determine the quantum of the different falaries to be given and augmented. The motion paffed. Mr. Beaufoy moved the order of the day for the fecond reading of the turbot fishery bill. Mr. Rolle faid, that he had understood that the honourable gentleman intended to have poftponed the farther proceeding on the bufinefs for the prefent; but if he chofe then to proceed in it, he was ready to ftate his objections. He thought howover, that it was not right to bring on a fubject of fo much confequence in fo thin a House. Mr. Chancellor Pitt recommended to the honourable gencellor Pitt. tleman to fuffer the fecond reading to take place, and to re ́ferve his oppofition till the motion for the Speaker's leaving the chair to go into a Committee. To this Mr. Rolle agreed. The bill was then read a second time, and committed. The Houfe adjourned. Mr. Burke. Monday, 3d April. The order of the day having been read for the Houfe to refolve itself into a Committee of the whole Houfe, the Speaker left the chair, having previously put the question on motion, "That the feveral Reports which, fince the << year 1772, have been made from the Committees of Seઠંડ crecy appointed to inquire into the causes of the war in "the Carnatic, and of the condition of the British poffeffions "in thofe parts; and from the Select Committees appointed "to take into confideration the ftate of the Adminiftration "of Juftice in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, "be referred to the faid Committee;" Mr. Orde took his feat at the table. Mr. Burke obferved, that it was his intention during the progrefs of the bufinefs which he had undertaken, to call fome of the gentlemen to the bar, who had been ordered by the Houfe to attend upon that day, as witneffes, and to examine them for the purpofe of authenticating certain papers already in his poffeffion, relative to the tranfactions at Oude, with regard to the treatment of the royal family, the imprisonment of the mother and grandmother of the king, and the putting other perfons of quality in fetters, with a view to extort fums of money from them. The papers ought to have been at the India Houfe. He fhould, therefore, eftablifh their authenticity by oral evidence, as well for the fake of enabling himfelf to lay them on the table as written evidence, as of proving that the Governor General had withhol den den the communication at home of fuch papers of importance as it was his undoubted duty to have communicated; and first he defired that Captain Leonard Jaques might be called in. Sir Lloyd Kenyon (the Mafter of the Rolls) contended, that Sir Lloyd it was indifpenfably requifite that the Committee thould pro- Kenyon. ceed with the moft deliberate and impartial circumfpection, when the whole power and weight of Parliament were about to be brought forward to prefs an individual to the ground, whether properly or improperly brought forward he would not fay. He had fully expected, when he came down upon that day, to have heard the right honourable gentleman ftate the charges which he meant to bring forward against Mr. Haftings, that he and other gentlemen might be able to judge how far the parole evidence to be adduced at the bar bore upon the charge, as well as whether the charge was a criminal charge or not, and fuch as it became the dignity and juftice of that House to entertain. As to the mode in which the right honourable gentleman meant to proceed, he was fo little able to guefs even at its nature, that he hoped the right honourable gentleman would ftate more fpecifically the facts in charge to which he meant to examine the witnefs whom he had juft afked for, before he came to the bar, in order to enable the House to act confcientioufly and juftly on a tranfaction of fo much importance. He knew not, for his own. part, much of the forms of proceeding upon criminal matters in that Houfe, but with the practice of places more immediately relative to the profeffion to which he had the honour to belong, he was tolerably familiar; and though he could not fay much of the practice of that Houfe, as the Grand Inqueft of the nation, he well knew that it was the practice of the Grand Inqueft of every county, when a criminal profecution was brought before them, to hear a pofitive, fpecific charge firft, and then go into the evidence, and find a bill of indictment. He fhould suppose that something analogous to that practice either did, or ought, to obtain ground in refpect to criminal profecutions carried on by that Houfe. Certain however, he was, that it behoved them to act with more than ordinary caution in the proceeding then carrying on by them against an individual, efpecially when it was confidered that the whole bufinefs lay in the hands of a right honourable gentleman of great and acknowledged abilities, and as that gentleman was known to poffefs as much candour as any man living, to that he fhould venture to appeal, and to his confcience, whether it would not be fair, in refpect to the fuppofed delinquent, that the charge fhould be specified in fome fort at leaft, or fo much of it as the witnet's just named would be called upon to speak to, before he came to the bar. Mr. Nichols. Mr. Burke. Mr. Nichols expreffed his opinion, that the charge ought to be opened to the Houfe, tha they night know where they were going, and be able to judge how far the papers called for were neceffary to eftablish the charge. The practice of criminal courts of justice upon indictments, was well known, and was worthy of imitation; and it feemed neceffary in point of juftice that fore fpecific crminal charge thould be made out before they proceeded fa. her. Mr. Burke antwered, but fo much did he admire and refpc&t wildom, that he would how even to late wisdom; but furly, if in head of learned numen of great weight and au.hority, because at the head of their profeffion; instead of the Miter of the Rolls, the Solicitor General, and the learned and right honourable gentleman whom he faw oppofite him, coming down fo late in the progrefs of the proccéding as the ftage of the Committee to which they had that day arrived (in order to fet the Houfe right and guide their fteps in the bufinefs) they had come down at first, and been fo good as to let them have the benefit of their fuperior legal knowledge, their conduct would have been more kind, and their behaviour more friendly to the House and to him. The learned and right honourable gentleman had talked of the weight of that Houfe being exercifed to crufh an individual to the ground; he might reft affured, that neither that Houfe would fuffer its weight to be ufed in the unjuft preffure of any individual, nor would he attempt to use it for any foch purpofe. But in truth, the weight of that Houfe, in a profecution of an Eaft India delinquent, was not to be confidered of that dreadful nature; it would not be felt equal to a feather upon any individual, as experience had again and again fhewn. The loins of that Houfe upon a criminal weighed not fo much as the little finger of the law, nor was it fo likely to cruth him to the earth. For his part, he meant, through the whole of the proceeding, to fhew himself as open as pofiible more fo than perhaps was well for the part which he had undertaken, but certainly not more fo than was fair. With that view he had, in the very outfet of the bufinefs, laid down the grounds of fact in a general manner, upon wh ch he was induced to prefume guilt of a great and enormous nature in the government of India; and in order to establifh which, as a matter of criminal charge against Warren Haltings, Elq. he had called for certain papers, most of which had been granted and fome denied. The papers already upon the table were thofe on which he fhould reft much of the various charges which he meant to bring forward; and he had other papers extremely material to the establishment of the charge which he wifhed the Houfe alfo to have before them; but it was impoffible for him to produce them until they they were authenticated, and the witneffes whom he meant to call he knew had it in their power to authenticate them. As far as they had gone, the Houfe, and not he, were answerable: any thing, therefore, which the right honourable and learned gentleman had to fuggeft against the order or form of their proceedings, muft go in cenfure of the House, because the papers for which he had moved, were, many of them, granted. He had then moved for a Committee of the whole Houfe, and that the Houfe had alfo granted; and he had moved for certain witneffes, to establish by oral evidence, the authenticity of the written evidence which he had in his poffeffion, which witnefies the Houfe had ordered to attend; and they were at that moment in a committee for the purpose of calling in and examining thofe witneffes. The whole of the proceedings hitherto were proceedings fanctioned by that Houfe; and furely when the Houfe had ordered a Committee, it was not merely for putting the chairman into his feat at the table that he might leave it the moment he fat down, without tranfacting any business in the Committee. The caufe which he endeavoured to forward was one of the most important and most confiderable ever agitated by Parliament; it behoved the Houfe, therefore, to be careful of its own honour, and by no means to appear defirous of restraining evidence or preventing full information on the fubject. The right honourable gentleman, and the other learned gentleman in his eye, had they attended in the early part of the bufinefs would have heard him ftate the outline of the charges; the better to eftablifh which, he had fince found it neceffary to call for fo many papers. The learned and right honourable gentleman had appealed to his candour, and he would prove to him that he had not appealed in vain, by reading again a paper which he had before read to the House, and upon hearing of which, they had not ventured (except in one or two inftances) to refuse him the papers for which he asked. [Mr. Burke here read the paper, which confifted of a fummary statement of the principal facts in refpect to the conduct of the British in the kingdom of Oude, and the transactions at Oude; to which he meant folely to confine himfelf in his firft inquiry.] With regard to the right honourable and learned gentleman's allufion to an indictment and a criminal trial in the courts below, the comparison would not hold with that Houfe. In their proceeding at prefent, they rather refembled the prefentment of a bill than any thing elfe; and cer tainly they in no fort refembled a jury trying a caufe. Their proceedings in all cafes of criminal profecution were clear, diftin&t, and peculiar to themselves; and he must appeal to the |