young a man. He begged leave, alfo to inform the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Pitt) that he confidered his as amicable, and as fuch he deferved his beft acknowledgements for them-It was certainly his object to bring matters to a conclufion as foon as poffible, in confiftency with the dignity and the fense of juftice of the Houfe-But, how this end was to be accomplished he was perfectly at a lofs to determine. He knew not what matter in the different articles of the charges which he had brought forward, to retain,, and what to reject. All of it appeared to him to be of much confequence-but what points were of more, and what of lefs importance, he could not cafily decide; nor did he know whether on this fubject he could fafely truft to his own judgement. In fact, he refembled, in his prefent fituation, a fhip-mafter who was under the neceffity of throwing fome of the cargoe over board. -But what articles he was to commit to the waves, and how he was to lighten the veffel, he was perfectly at a loss to determine-nay he was afraid to enter on this office, left gentlemen fhould afterwards tell him, "you indeed at firft fur"nifhed yourself with an excellent cargo-many of your "materials were of the very beft quality, but whilft you "have retained trifles, the articles of greateft value you have "indifcriminately thrown overboard and configned them to "the waves." He was therefore fearful of beginning a bufinefs which might prove in the end fo hurtful to that caufe, which it was originally his concern, and had now become that of the Committee, to have brought to a proper iffue. Nor did he fee that there was any reafon for delaying the carrying of the impeachment to the bar of the Houfe of Peers, till fuch time as the Committee had gone through, and decided on each article of the charges. This had not been customary in conducting matters of this kind. In the cafe of Dr. Sacheverel, the very oppofite mode of procedure had been adopted; and fo ftrongly was this precedent in point, that no other caufe could be affigned for the House adopting this line of conduct, than this very one that they feemed determined, by carrying up articles of impeachment, after articles of impeachment, to maintain a right which they had long been in poffeffion of, and in that inftance were refolved not to be abandoned. The charges on which the Committee had determined were great and interefting; but he afferted, that there were others of no lefs moment than those which had been brought forward; and to abandon those, would amount to an act of public injustice, and would be treachery to that cause in which they were now fo laudably engaged. With regard to the remarks which had been made by a right honourable gentleman (Mr. Pitt) on the variety of matter contained in the charge under deliberation, and which had VOL. XXI. 3 M been been laid open with fuch uncommon ability, by (Sir James Erfkine) he could not entirely concur with him in opinion, nor could he think of allowing fome of thofe points, which, agreeable to his amendment, he had wifhed to omit, to be entirely rejected. The points contained in the charge were multifarious but notwithstanding their variety, they had one common object: That object was, to fhew that Mr. Haftings' government had been prodigal and corrupt, It was to illuftrate this feature in his adminiftration, and to prove that he acted on system, and that that fyftem was depraved, that he' had brought forward fo many examples. This had been his main concern; and to characterize the government of any perfon, it was abfolutely neceffary to take into the account a great variety of acts. In vindication of Mr. Haftings, it had been alledged, that he had not been criminated by those who were fuperior to him. But was this act a folid argument in his favour? Could it with any decency be urged, that, because a perfon in office, who had fuffered himself to be corrupted, who in that ftation in which he had been placed, had been guilty of peculation, and of various other mifdemeanors, incompatible with the character of a man of confidence; and who,, notwithstanding all these depravities, had escaped either the eye or the cenfure of his fuperiors-could it be urged that he was on this account to be vindicated, that he was on this account to be abfolved from thofe crimes, which, owing to a fortunate revolution of affairs, had been brought to light, and were likely to become the objects of national juftice? No-the plea was inadmiffible. If any perfon employed by the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Pitt) were to betray the truft repofed in him, and after ten years had paft away, if this mifconduct were to be detected, would it form any apology in behalf of such a culprit, that he had escaped the cenfure of the right honourable gentleman under whom he had been engaged? Would this circumftance exculpate him in the eye of the Houfe, or before the tribunal of Juftice? It certainly would not. But, with refpect to Mr. Haftings, the fact was, that he had not only corrupted India, but he had alfo corrupted the Court of Directors, who were his fuperiors. He had blinded their eyes, and this circumftance was a principal caufe why his conduct had not been ftigmatized by their marked difapprobation. But to affert, that on this account he was to be vindicated, was as abfurd as to affirm, that because robbery was now, perhaps more frequent than in any former period, the law therefore tolerated it, and it was on this account excufeable. But he wished to enter into an examination of those points to which the right honourable gentleman had objected, and which it was the object of his motion to feparate from being ༄།་་་་་་་་ grounds grounds of charge. The rice contract was one of themdid he recollect that this very contract, which was intended for the preservation of Madras, in the firft inftance, was to be executed at the risk of destroying Bengal?-And why was this facrifice to be made?-For the exprefs purpose of gratifying Mr. Auriol.-And was there no other way by which this. gentleman could have been recompenfed for his meritorious poverty? What was the facrifice of public intereft which had been made on this occafion?-Had not the merchants promifed to procure the rice at five per cent.?-Why then give Mr. Auriol an enormous benefit of fifteen?-Was this douceur likely to qualify him the better for discharging the duties of his engagement-or was there any thing in his habits of life to entitle him to fo extraordinary a preference? He was out of trade-He had no capital-He had nothing to justify his being put on the fame footing with those whofe profeffion was mercantile, who were ready to act on the shortest notice, and who, of course, could have undertaken the execution of this contract with more facility, and on more reasonable terms than Mr. Auriol-But this contract was not confined in its operation to Madras. It extended to Bencoolen to St. Helena, which was almoft at our own door, and to Bombay, where, notwithstanding the jobbing mood, which they were not unfrequently in, in that part of the world, they had been aftonished at the circumftance of being fupplied with rice, at double the price they could have procured it for themselves. This mode of rewarding people for their fervices, he confidered as highly impolitic and dangerous-increase of falary was furely a much wifer method for encouraging the hope of recompence, by the means of contract, what was it but to exhibit a motive to induce mankind to rob the public? The next point on which he animadverted,, was the duty on falt-There he alfo alledged, that a moft fhameful alienation of the Public money had obtained-for the first Commiffioner had a yearly income of 18,000l. given him, which was certainly extravagant, and an eminent example of that corruption, which diftinguished the government of Mr, Haftings. Mr. Haftings had acted as the agent of the Company against the Company-And for what reafon? Who was Mr. Bellie? His own private fecretary. And when a perfon of this description got a gratuity of 30 per cent. on a contract which could have been executed for 20, and when this contract was extended in the very face of the orders of the Court of Directors during five years-was there not something in this mode of conduct to juftify what was more than fufpicious, a rational prefumption of criminality? Feeling, therefore, the importance of all these confiderations to illuftrate the general feature of Mr. Haftings' government, he thought it would 3 M 2 be Major Scott be improper to omit them, and therefore he would propofe an amendment to the one made by the right honourable gentleman including the agency for rice, the falt duty, and the other articles on which he had enlarged in the courfe of his remarks. Major Scott faid, that at fo late an hour of the night he fhould referve much of what he had to fay upon the prefent queftion till it came again before the Committee, and would merely confine himself to fome explanation of the only two contracts which had been cenfured by the right honourable gentleman; firft obferving, that if the profits of all the contracts were as exorbitant as the honourable baronet had ftated, which he was prepared to difprove, they would not, taken all together, amount to more than one half of the profits arifing from the loan of a fingle year during the late unfortunate war. With refpect to the bullock contract, the Major faid, he fhould declare generally, that it was highly advantageous to the Company; that it was concluded in confequence of reprefentations from General Stibbert, immediately after the breaking out of the French war; that it was a matter of public notoriety to every officer of the Bengal army, and of univerfal complaint, that previous to the conclufion of the contract with Mr. Croftes, no part of the army in Bengal had ever moved without infinite diftrefs to the country, that bullocks were conftantly preffed, to the very great diftrefs of the hufbandmen and to the very great lofs of the revenue: he could mention many inftances to prove this, that came within his own knowledge, one in particular, which he was fure could be confirmed by an honourable friend near him, who was at the time Chief of Patna. When Colonel Champion marched with the first brigade from Dinapore, in February 1772, he was unable to move till the whole country round Patna had been fwept for bullocks; and in the course of his march through a diftrict producing a revenue of only three lacks a year, the collector of that district claimed a deduction of feventy thousand rupees for his district, on account of loffes fuftained in confequence of the farmers' bullocks having been feized: this was not the only inftance, for, the Major faid, he would take upon him to declare, that no corps of the army had marched from 1767 to 1780, without experiencing the fame inconveniencies, and without creating the fame diftrefs to the country; and he was convinced that it would be better to disband five or fix battalions, than to reduce the bullock contract fo as to endanger the ftrict performance of the fervice. Since the conclufion of Mr. Croftes' contract, the park of artillery, and every corps of the ariny, was furnished with its proper complement of bullocks. He had had had the honour to command a battalion of fepoys at Chunar, and his corps, with his guns and ammunition, were ready to march at any time at five minutes notice; but formerly, when an order of march was iffued, the first thing neceffary was, to fweep the country for bullocks. There were, after the expiration of Mr. Croftes' contract, four brigades in Bengal, Bahar, and Oude; there was an army in the field under Colonel Cormac, afterwards Colonel Muir's; another under Colonel Popham, and a very confiderable detachment under Colonel Pearce, in the Carnatic. The explanations alluded to by the right honourable gentleman were before the House, though not printed: he did not, however, defireto poftpone the decifion of the queftion on that account; another opportunity would offer, when he trufted it would fully appear, that the fecond bullock contract was a neceffary and an œconomical measure; whereas the first, being on fuch low terms, was merely a deception; the honourable gentleman (Mr. Francis) having himself allowed that bullocks had always been preffed on the movement of any part of the army. " As to the opium contract, he would ftate that fairly and fully; it was a fubject that could not, and fhould not, be mifunderstood it was a fact that opium always had been, and always inuft be, a monopoly; in the time of the Mahomedan government it was a monopoly, and given to favoured individuals. From the time we acquired influence, it was a monopoly in the hands of the civil fervants of the Company at Patna, not a fecret monopoly, not a tranfaction committed in the dark, but openly and avowedly taken -as a perquifite of office, as any fee attached to any patent office in this country-perfectly known to the government of Bengal, and perfectly known to the Court of Directors at home; fo it continued till Mr. Haftings came to the government in April 1772. He was the first who made the Company participaters in this monopoly; not in confequence of orders from home; but he himself created the revenue for them; and it appears by papers upon the table, that during his adminiftration, though the Company gained above five hundred thousand pounds by the monopoly, ftill it was a great advantage to individuals. The first year the Company took a certain number of chefts to fend to Balambangan at 400 rupees a cheft; the fecond year they took all the produce of the province, for which they paid 320 rupees a cheft. In 1775 the Governor General and Council advertised for fealed propofals for furnishing all the opium of Bengal and Bahar on the Company's account, and the contracts were given to the lowest of thirteen who sent |