servants were corrupted by contracts and jobs; we proved, that those that were not so corrupted, were removed from their stations or reduced to a state of abject dependence; we shewed you the destruction of the provincial councils; the destruction of the council general; and the formation of a committee for no other ends whatever, but for the purposes of bribery, concealment, and corruption. We next stated some of the most monstrous instances of that bribery; and though we were of opinion, that in none of them any satisfactory defence worth mentioning had been made, yet we have thought that this should not hinder us from recalling to your Lordships' recollection, the peculiar naturé and circumstances of one of those proceedings.

The proceedings to which we wish to call your attention, are those belonging to the second bribe given by the Nabob of Oude to Mr. Hastings. Mr. Hastings's own knowledge and opinion, that that money was set apart for his use, either in bills or assets, I have before stated; and I now wish to call your Lordships' minute recollection to the manner in which the fraudulent impeachment of Mr. Middleton, for the purpose of stifling an inquiry into that business, was carried on. Your Lordships will remember that I proved to you, upon the face of that proceeding, the collusive nature of the accusation; and that the

real state of the case was not charged; and that Mr. Hastings acquitted the party accused, of one article of the charge, not upon the evidence oné of the case, contrary to his own avowed, de elared, moral certainty of his guilt, but upon a pretended appeal to the conscience of the man accused. He did not however give him a complete, formal, official acquittal, but referred the matter to the Court of Directors, who could not possibly know any thing of the matter, without one article of evidence whatever produced at the time or transmitted. We lastly proved to you, that, after finding him guilty of five charges, and leaving the other to the Court of Directors, Mr. Hastings, without any reason assigned, appointed him to a great office in the Company's service.

These proceedings were brought before you for two purposes-first, to shew the corrupt principle of the whole proceeding-next, to shew the manner in which the Company's servants are treated. They are accused and persecuted, until they are brought to submit to whatever terms it may be thought proper to impose upon them. They are then formally, indeed, acquitted of the most atrocious crimes charged against them; but virtually condemned upon some articles, with the scourge hung over them; and in some instances rewarded by the greatest, most honourable, and

most

most lucrative situations in the Company's service. My Lords, it is on the same ground of the wicked, pernicious, and ruinous principles of Mr. Hastings's government, that I have charged this with every thing that is chargeable against him, namely, that if your Lordships should ratify those principles by your acquittal of him, they become principles of government; rejected, indeed, by the Commons, but adopted by the Peerage of Great Britain.

There is another article which I have just touched; but which I must do more than barely notice, upon account of the evil example of itI mean the taking great sums of money, under pretence of an entertainment. Your Lordships will recollect, that when this business was charged against him in India, Mr. Hastings neither affirmed nor denied the fact. Confession could not be there extorted from him. He next appeared before the House of Commons, and he still evaded a denial or a confession of it. He lastly appeared before your Lordships, and in his answer to our charge, he in the same manner evaded either a confession or a denial. He forced us to employ a great part of a Session, in endeavouring to establish what we have at last established, the receipt of the sums first charged, and of seven lacks more by him. At length the proof could not be evaded, and