XXIII. 1788. friendly to corrupt intrigue and cabal, hostile to BOOK all good government, and abhorrent to the principles of our constitution. The patronage of the Company was said to be enjoyed by the commissioners in the worst of all possible forms, and without that responsibility which was the natural se'curity against malversation and abuse. In some degree to palliate this odious measure, by which the Company were for ever deprived of all efficient authority in India, they were empowered by a subsequent bill to borrow for the relief of their financial embarrassments the sum of 1,200,000l. for which, notwithstanding the flourishing condition of their affairs, they stood in immediate and urgent necessity. In the early part of the session the great India delinquent, Mr. Hastings, had delivered in his answer to the impeachment of the commons, who immediately proceeded to the appointment of a committee of managers, to make good the samė. When Mr. Francis had been in the last session proposed as one of the committee to prepare the articles, he had been objected to on the ground of the personal animosity known to subsist between him and Mr. Hastings, and which had been unfortunately productive of an encounter, wherein the life of Mr. Francis had been imminently endangered. Mr. Fox on the present occasion again moved 202 BOOK the house, that the name of Mr. Francis be added to the list of managers. He urged, "that the XXIII. 1788. house were not sitting as judges of Mr. Hastingsnot even in the capacity of grand jurors; the bill had been found, and they were now become his accusers and prosecutors. Did it disqualify a man from acting as an accuser, that he was animated with an honest indignation against the crimes and the criminal whom he attempted to bring to justice? The enmity which Mr. Francis cherished against Mr. Hastings was not a private but a public enmity, founded on a just sense of the abuses he had committed, and the trust he had perverted. Mr. Francis had with infinite application and ability developed, by means of his local and personal knowledge, the whole mystery of Indian corruption; he had enforced it on the reluctant conviction of that house. Would the house, now they had adopted the accusation and made it their own, prevent its author from supporting it at the bar of the house of lords, where only he could support it with effect?" Mr. Francis himself, with great dignity and animation, entered into a general vindication of his character and conduct. 66 Upon his return from India he had been called upon (he said) to give evidence before a committee of the house of Could he without treachery to the public refuse every information in his power? To commons. 1788 act in the capacity of a whispering adviser, or an BOOK obscure and covert witness, he disdained. In his own opinion, and in that of men of the highest reputation whom he had consulted, he acted far more honorably in declaring himself the responsible accuser of Mr. Hastings-in avowing his principles and abiding by their consequences. He was happy to find that the objection against him implied no imputation upon his character, no suspicion upon his actions. He trusted that no one would think it possible that he meant to solicit the house to alter their resolution. He owed, indeed, every assistance in his power to carry into effect the task now undertaken. Exclusively of that consideration, what could he desire better than to be excused from any further concern in this toilsome, invidious, and most unthankful office ?" Mr. Pitt contented himself with saying," that the question was in his opinion a question of feeling, and not of argument; and he could not reconcile to his ideas of propriety or delicacy the appointment of a member, as the representative of the house in this business, who was distinguished from all others by the personal contest in which he had been engaged with the accused." This drew down the indignation of Mr. Burke. "Was it fit or becoming," he asked, "for a legislator, in a great and important question, to say his feelings compelled him to abandon his arguments?— BOOK that his delicacy was offended by rational investi XXIII. 1788. Honorable testimony Mr.Francis. gation?-What was delicacy but at best a superadded flower to virtue-an ornament, the presence or absence of which was alike indifferent to the substance? Delicacy and feeling might be proper terms to express the sensations excited by the exertions of an opera-singer, but they were an insult to the solemnity and magnitude of parlia mentary deliberation." At length the house di vided on the motion of Mr. Fox, ayes 62, noes 122. This decision gave extréme offence to the comin behalf of mittee of managers, who expressed, in a letter to Mr. Francis, the high sense they entertained of his merits and services. "They had perused (they said) with great attention the records of the Company, and they had found there, on the part of Mr. Francis, wise and steady principles of government, an exact obedience to the authority placed over him, an inflexible integrity in himself, and a firm resistance to all corrupt practices in others-crowned by that uniform benevolent attention to the rights, properties, and welfare of the natives, which had been the leading object in his appointment. Such a conduct, so tried, acknowledged, and recorded, demanded their fullest confidence and such were the qualities that had excited their wish for his assistance." Thus nobly and unequivocally was the character of this distinguished politician, patriot, and friend to man kind, vindicated in the view of present and of fu- BOOK ture times. XXIIL 1788. sir Elijah Next in dignity, and next in the general esti- Proceedmation in delinquency, to Mr. Hastings, was sir ings against Elijah Impey, chief-justice of the Supreme Court Impey. established by the Regulating Act of 1773; against whom it was now determined to institute a similar process. Six articles of impeachment were accordingly in the early part of the session exhibited to the house by sir Gilbert Elliot; of which the conduct of the chief-justice in the memorable business of Nundcomar constituted the first. His decisions in the Patna and Cossijura causes, his acceptance of an employment, contrary to his oath, in the native court styled the Sudder Dewannee Adaulet, with a salary annexed, to be held during the pleasure of the governor and council, and his proceedings in concert with the governor respecting the affairs of Benares and Oude, furnished ample materials for the remaining charges. On the 4th of February sir Elijah was permitted to make his defence at the bar of the house; which he performed at great length, and with great abi lity-confining himself however entirely to the charge relating to Nundcomar. For he remarked, with the artfulness of practised and technical subtilty, "that his mind had been so much deranged by the magnitude of that charge, that he found it impossible to exert himself in reply to the |