IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
Early in this session a question arose, whether an impeachment by the house of commons did not remain in statu quo, notwithstanding the intervention of a dissolution of parliament. Upon the solution of this question it depended whether the present parliament could take up the proceedings against Hastings where they had been left by the last, or whether they must be commenced anew. Much discussion arose upon the question; lawyers and members of parliament alike being at issue upon it; but Burke finally succeeded in carrying this motion:—“That it appears that an impeachment by this house, &c., against Warren Hastings, Esq., late Governor-general of Bengal, for sundry high crimes and misdemeanors, is now depending.” The trial, therefore, was to be resumed at the point where it was left by the recent parliament; and in order to shorten it, on the 14th of February, Burke moved “that, in consideration of the length of time which has already elapsed since carrying up the impeachment against Warren Hastings, Esq., it appears to this house to be proper, for the purpose of obtaining substantial justice with as little delay as possible, to proceed to no other parts of the said impeachment than those on which the managers of the prosecution have already closed their evidence; excepting only such parts of the impeachment as relate to the contracts, pensions, and allowances.” This motion was carried without a division; but the resolution of the commons, that an impeachment did not cease with the dissolution of parliament, was strongly contested in the house of lords; and it was not till the 16th of May that their lordships agreed to proceed with the trial. On that day Lord Porchester moved, “that their lordships do now proceed with the trial;” and this motion being carried by a large majority, a message was sent to the house of commons that they were ready to resume proceedings. The charge respecting contracts, pensions, allowances, frauds, and extortions, was opened by Mr. St. John on the 23rd of May, and was gone through in three days. The prosecution closed its evidence on the 30th of May; and when the court broke up, the managers proposed an address to the king, praying him not to prorogue parliament until the trial was finished. This was negatived; and Hastings seeing that he could not expect to bring his defence before the court during the present session, begged to be allowed one day for stating what he deemed of importance respecting the further progress of the trial. This request was readily granted; and on the 2nd of June he delivered a long and able discourse, vindicating his administration in India, and entering at large into the principles which had actuated his conduct. He finally appealed to his accusers in the following energetic peroration:—“To the commons of England, in whose name I am arraigned for desolating the provinces of their dominion in India, I dare to reply, that they are, and their representatives annually tell them so, the most flourishing of all the states in India. It was I who made them so! The valour of others acquired—I enlarged, giving shape and consistency to the dominion which you hold there. I preserved it. I sent forth its armies with an effectual but economical hand, through unknown and hostile regions, to the support of your other possessions; to the retrieval of one from dishonour and degradation, and of another from utter loss and subjection. I maintained the wars which were of your formation or that of others, not of mine. I won one member of the great Indian confederacy from it by an act of seasonable restitution; with another I maintained a secret intercourse, and converted him into a friend; a third I drew off by diversion and negociation, and employed him as an instrument of peace. When you cried out for peace, and your cries were heard by those who were the object of it, I resisted this and every other species of counteraction by rising in my demands, and accomplished a peace, a lasting and I hope an everlasting one, with one great state; and I, at least, afforded the efficient means by which a peace, if not so durable, more seasonable at least, was accomplished with another. I gave you all, and you have rewarded me with confiscation, disgrace, and a life of impeachment. I am, above all things, desirous that your lordships should come to an immediate decision upon the evidence before you. But if the shortness of time should prevent you from complying with this, my earnest desire, and the trial must, of necessity, and to my unspeakable sorrow, be prolonged to another session, then, my lords, I trust you will not consider me, by anything I have said, as precluded from adopting such means of defence as my counsel may judge most advisable for my interest. I am so confident of my own innocence, and have such a perfect reliance upon the honour of your lordships, that I am not afraid to submit to judgment upon the evidence which has been adduced on the part of the prosecution.” After this plea of general merit, in extenuation of specific charges, their lordships passed a resolution to proceed with the trial on the first Tuesday in the next session of parliament.