particulars to which it referred, although he did not agree with him in many others, not then under consideration. The pamphlet in question was written by Mr. Hastings, and suppressed by him upon better recollection. The extract stated, that the drains of Bengal ought always to be allowed for, and that the utmost surplus revenue that could be expected from Bengal was a crore of rupees, or one million of money. Mr. Sheridan dwelt for a considerable time on this point; and opposed the authority of Mr. Hastings respecting it to the arguments used by Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas upon the subject in former debates. He also said, that he expected to hear no more from the former of these gentlemen respecting the two hundred and seventy-five thousandpounds sent from India to China, unless he meant positively to contradict the papers which had been printed, and which had been presented from the India House, in conformity to his motion. In the course of his speech, Mr. Sheridan argued upon the immense quantity of bills drawn from India upon the company at home; declaring, that in ten years time bills to the amount of twelve millions would be due. He asked whether the Lords of the Treasury, in permitting bills to so large an amount, and which were to be outstanding till so distant a period, did not pledge that house to renew the company's charter, when it should next expire? He reasoned upon the probable effect of such a load of debt; and contended that it must prove ruinous to the company. After a great deal of calculation, reasoning, and remarks, on the two principal heads above stated, Mr. Sheridan took notice of the declaration made by Mr. Dundas in a late debate, that the public were not pledged as a security for the money borrowed by the East-India Company; and said, that if the fact were so, it could not be too well understood. He should therefore move the insertion of a clause, expressly declaring, that neither the present bill, nor any preceeding bill, relative to the company, which had passed the house, pledged the public in any way whatsoever. Before he concluded, he said, he felt himself authorised by the papers which he held in his hand, to declare, that the report of the directors of the state of the company's affairs, was equally fallacious with the state of their affairs presented to that house in 1784, the errors of which the directors themselves had now confessed. Thus, in fact, so

aspect, they wore a most alarming one. They appeared to be rapidly verging to a state of bankruptcy; and were already so deeply involved, that the relief now proposed was merely tampering with their disorder, and by no means an adequate and effectual cure. Mr. Sheridan now moved his clause.

Mr. Dundas replied at great length to these arguments.

Mr. Sheridan concluded by stating, that from the vigour and length of the defence, he drew the inference that the right honourable and learned gentleman was convinced of the weakness of the side of the argument which he was under the necessity of maintaining; and the more particularly was induced to draw this inference, from the frequent aids which he saw administered, while the right honourable and learned gentleman was upon his legs. He had received a hint from one friend in a whisper, and a viva voce instruction from a second, and he had been furnished with a written calculation and argument from a third; so that it was evident the principal of his friends were conscious he had a difficult task to sustain. Mr. Sheridan concluded with observing that as not one word had fallen from the right honourable and learned gentleman against the clause he had moved, he trusted it would meet with the concurrence of a majority.

The question was put on Mr. Sheridan's clause, and negatived without a divi

sion.

JANUARY 24, 1787.

PROCEEDINGS AGAINST MR. HASTINGS.

On the 23d of January, his Majesty having opened the fourth session of the present parliament, no time was lost in bringing forward with all possible expedition the proceedings against Mr. Hastings, Mr. Burke on that day gave notice he should renew the proceedings on the 1st day of February following; and on the 24th of January, Mr. Sheridan made a motion on the subject.

MR. SHERIDAN having prefaced his observations, by intimating to the house that he had heard, that on the preceeding Tuesday, when the necessity of attending to some business in the country had obliged him to delay his appearance in the execution of his parliamentary duty; notice had been given by a right honourable friend, that the charge relative to the Princesses

remarked, that he rose to say, that having himself conceived Monday se'nnight was the intended day, and having informed several members who were yet in the country, that the business would not be brought on before Monday se'nnight, he desired not to change the day, but to let the house understand, that on Tuesday next he wished to call Mr. Middleton to the bar, to explain a few points in his evidencé, respecting which, as they stood at present, great doubts might arise ;-and which doubts nothing but a few questions put to Mr. Middleton could clear up. His right honourable friend did not mean himself to interrogate Mr. Middleton, but the whole would rest on the few questions which he (Mr. Sheridan) thought it absolutely necessary to put to Mr. Middleton, which would not detain that gentleman at the bar above half an hour; and he should, on Monday se'nnight, be prepared to bring forward the business of the charge; but that no time would actually be lost by this mode of proceeding, as his right honourable friend would be ready to come forward with another charge on Thursday in the same week. Mr. Sheridan added, that if there was any serious objection to calling Mr. Middleton again to the bar, he would wave his motion for his attendance on Thursday; but as the questions which he wished to put to that gentleman were really important, and would take up but very little time, he hoped there would not be any obstacle. Under this idea, he should therefore beg leave to move," That Nathaniel Middleton, Esq. do attend the committee of the whole house on India affairs on Thursday next."

The question was put, and agreed to.

The 1st and 2nd of February were spent in examining Mr. Middleton and Sir Elijah Impey. Mr. Pitt having expressed his apprehensions that it would be impossible for the evidence to be printed soon enough for the copies to be distributed on Monday, for the members to have them, so as to enable them to become masters of its tendency, and apply it to the charge, if the charge was that day debated; Mr. Sheridan agreed to postpone bringing forward the charge against the Begums till, Wednesday.

FEBRUARY 7.

PROCEEDINGS AGAINST MR. HASTINGS.

The house having resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, Mr. St. John in the chair, on the fourth charge against Mr. Hastings, viz. the resumption of the Jaghires, and the confiscation of the treasures of the princesses of Oude.

The subject of this charge was particularly fitted for displaying all the pathetic powers of eloquence; and never were they displayed with greater skill, force, and elegance. For five hours and a half Mr. Sheridan commanded the universal attention and admiration of the house (which from the expectation of the day was uncommonly crowded), by an oration of almost unexampled excellence; uniting the most convincing closeness and accuracy of argument, with the most luminous precision and perspicuity of language; and alternately giving force and energy to truth, by solid and substantial reasoning; and enlightening the most extensive and involved subjects with the purest clearness of logic, and the brightest splendour of rhetoric. Every prejudice, every prepossession were gradually overcome by the force of this extraordinary combination of keen, but liberal, discrimination; of brilliant, yet argumentative wit. So fascinated were the auditors by his eloquence, that when Mr. Sheridan sat down, the whole house, the members, peers, and strangers, involuntarily joined in a tumult of applause, and adopted a mode of expressing their approbation, new and irregular in the house, by loudly and repeatedly clapping with their hands. Burke declared it to be the most astonishing effort of eloquence, argument, and wit, united, of which there was any record or tradition. Mr. Fox said, "all that he had ever heard-all that he had ever read when compared with it, dwindled into nothing, and vanished like vapour before the sun." Mr. Pitt acknowledged, that it surpassed all the eloquence of ancient or modern times, and possessed every thing that genius or art could furnish, to agitate and controul the human mind. The effects it produced were proportioned to its merits. After a considerable suspension of the debate, one of the friends of Mr. Hastings (Mr. Burgess) with some difficulty obtained, for a short time, a hearing; but finding the house too strongly affected by what they had heard to listen to him with favour, sat down again. Several members confessed they had come down strongly prepossessed in favour of the person accused, and imagined nothing less than a miracle could have wrought so entire a revolution in their sentiments. Others declared, that though they could not resist the conviction that flashed upon their minds, yet they wished to have leave to cool before they were called upon to vote; and though they were persuaded it would require another miracle to produce another change in their opinions, yet, for the sake of decorum, they thought it proper that the debate should be adjourned. Mr. Fox and Mr. A. Taylor strongly opposed this proposition; contending, that it was not less absurd than unparliamentary to defer coming to a vote for no other reason that had been alleged than because the members were too firmly convinced; but Mr. Pitt concurring with the opinions of the former, the debate was adjourned a little after one o'clock.

SPEECH.

MR. SHERIDAN commenced by observing that it had been impossible to have received, without a violation of the established rules of parliament, the paper* which the honourable member, Mr. Dempster, had just now read, he should willingly have re

ceded from any forms of the house, for the purpose of obtaining new lights and farther illustrations on the important subject then before them; not, indeed, that, on the present occasion, he found himself so ill prepared, as merely, for this reason, to be prevented from proceeding to the discharge of his duty; neither, to speak freely, was he inclined to consider any explanatory editions to the evidence of Sir Elijah Impey so much framed to elucidate, as to perplez and contradict. Needless to his present purpose was it for him to require Sir Elijah, legally, to recognize what had been read in his name, by the honourable gentleman. In fact, neither the informality of any subsisting evidence, nor the adducement of any new explanations from Sir Elijah Impey, could make the slightest impression upon the vast and strong body of proof which he should now bring forward against Warren Hastings. Yet, if any motive could have so far operated upon him, as to make him industriously seek for renewed opportunities of questioning Sir Elijah, it would result from his fresh and indignant recollection of the low and artful stratagem of delivering to the members, and others, in this last period of parliamentary inquiry, printed handbills of defence, the contents of which bespoke a presumptuous and empty boast of completely refuting all which, at any time had, or even could, be advanced against Mr. Hastings, on the subject of the fourth article in the general charge of a right honourable member (Mr. Burke). But even this was far beneath his notice. The rectitude and strength of his cause were not to be prejudiced by such pitiful expedients; and he should not waste a moment in counteracting measures, which, though insidious, were proportionately frivolous and unavailing. Nor would he take up the time of the committee with any general arguments to prove that the subject of the charge which had fallen to his lot to bring forward, was of great moment and magnitude. The attention which parliament had paid to the affairs of India, for many sessions past, the voluminous productions of their committees on that subject, the various proceedings in that house respecting it, their own strong and pointed resolutions, the repeated recommendation of his Majesty, and their reiterated assurances of paying due regard to these recommendations, as well as various acts of the legislature, were all of them undeniable proofs of the