script produced by Mr. Scott and Mr. Baber, and comparing it with Mr. Goring's papers, they found the latter carefully sealed upon every leaf, as they believe is the practice universal in all authentick pieces. They found on the former no seal or signature whatsoever, either at the top or bottom of the scroll. This circumstance of a want of signature not only takes away all authority from the piece as evidence, but strongly confirmed the suspicions entertained by your committee, on reading the translation, of unwarrantable practices in the whole conduct of this business, even if the translation should be found substantially to agree with the original, such an original as it is. The Persian roll is in the custody of the clerk of your committee for further examination.

Mr. Baber and Mr. Scott being examined on these material defects in the authenticalness of a paper, produced by them as authentick, could give no sort of account how it happened to be without a signature; nor did Mr. Baber explain how he came to accept and use it in that condition.

On the whole, your committee conceive, that all the parts of the transaction, as they appear in the company's records, are consistent, and mutually throw light on each other.

They write, in their letter of 5th February 1777, paragraphs 32 and 33: “ although it is rather our wish to prevent evils in future, than to en"ter into a severe retrospection of the past; and, "where facts are doubtful, or attended with alleviating circumstances, to proceed with lenity, " rather than to prosecute with rigour; yet some "of the cases are so flagrantly corrupt, and others "attended with circumstances so oppressive to "the inhabitants, that it would be unjust to suffer "the delinquents to go unpunished. The principal facts have been communicated to our "solicitor, whose report, confirmed by our standing counsel, we send you by the present conveyance; authorizing you, at the same time, to "take such steps as shall appear proper to be "pursued.

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"If we find it necessary, we shall return you "the original covenants of such of our servants as remain in India, and have been anywise con"cerned in the undue receipt of money, in order "to enable you to recover the same for the use "of the company by a suit or suits at law, to be "instituted in the supreme court of judicature in Bengal."

Your committee do not find, that the covenants have been sent, or that any prosecution has been begun.

The court of directors order the president and council to appoint a minister to transact the political affairs of the government, and to select for that purpose some person well qualified for the affairs of government, and to be the minister of government. Mr. Hastings selects for the minister so described, and so qualified, a woman locked up in a seraglio. He is ordered to appoint a guardian to the nabob's minority. Mr. Hastings passes by his natural parent, and appoints another woman. These acts would, of themselves, have been liable to suspicion; but a great deficiency or embezzlement soon appears in this woman's account. To exculpate herself she voluntarily declares, that she gave a considerable sum to Mr. Hastings;-who never once denies the receipt. The account given by the principal living witness of the transaction, in his evidence, is perfectly coherent, and consistent with the recorded part. The original accounts, alleged to be delivered by the lady in question, were produced by him, properly sealed and authenticated. Nothing is opposed to all this but a paper without signature, and therefore of no authority, attended with a translation of a very extraordinary appearance; and this paper, in apolo-" gizing for it, confirms the facts beyond a doubt.

Finally, your committee examined the principal living witness of the transaction, and finds his evidence consistent with the record. Your committee received the original accounts, alleged to be delivered by the lady in question, properly sealed and authenticated; and find opposed to them nothing but a paper without a signature, and therefore of no authority, attended with a translation of a very extraordinary appearance.

In Europe, the directors ordered opinions to be
Relative to salt farms, charges of the Ranny of Burdwan,

A vast scene of further peculation and corruption, as well in this business as in several other instances, appears in the evidence of the Rajah Nundcomar. That evidence, and all the proceedings relating to it, are entered in the Appendix. It was the last evidence of the kind. The informant was hanged. An attempt was made by Mr. Hastings to indict him for a conspiracy; this failing of effect, another prosecutor appeared for an offence not connected with these charges. Nundcomar, the object of that charge, was executed at the very crisis of the enquiry for an offence of another nature, not capital by the laws of the country. As long as it appeared safe, several charges were made (which are inserted at large in the Appendix); and Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell seemed apprehensive of many more. General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis declared, in a minute entered on the consultations of the 5th May 1775, that," in the late proceedings of the revenue board, it will appear, that there is no species of peculation, from which the "honourable governour-general has thought proper to abstain." A charge of offences of so heinous a nature, so very extensive, so very deliberate, made on record by persons of great weight, appointed by act of parliament his associates in the highest trust; a charge made at his own board, to his own face, and transmitted to their common superiours, to whom they were jointly and severally accountable;-this was not a thing to be passed over by Mr. Hastings; still less ought it to have perished in other hands. It ought to have and the charges of Nundcomar and Munny Begum.

the former occasions the majority did not admit his claim to this power, they proceeded in his absence to examine the accuser and the witnesses. Their proceedings are in Appendix K.

the original enquiry. He says, "though it may in "some little degree save the governour-general “from personal insult-where there is no judicial “power lodged, that of inquisition can never an"swer any good purpose." This is a doctrine of a It is remarkable, that during this transaction most extraordinary nature and tendency; and, as Khân Jehan Khân, the party with whom the coryour committee conceive, contrary to every sound rupt agreement was made, declined an attendance principle to be observed in the constitution of judi- under excuses, which the majority thought precatures and inquisitions. The power of inquisi-tences for delay, though they used no compulsory tion ought rather to be wholly separated from the methods towards his appearance; at length, howjudicial, the former being a previous step to the ever, he did appear, and then a step was taken by latter, which requires other rules and methods, Mr. Hastings of a very extraordinary nature, after and ought not (if possible) to be lodged in the the steps which he had taken before, and the desame hands. The rest of his minute (contained clarations with which those steps had been accomin the Appendix) is filled with a censure on the panied. Mr. Hastings, who had absolutely renative inhabitants; with reflections on the ill con- fused to be present in the foregoing part of the sequences which would arise from an attention to proceeding, appeared with Khan Jehan Khân. their complaints; and with an assertion of the And now the affair took another turn; other obauthority of the supreme court, as superseding the structions were raised. General Clavering said, necessity and propriety of such enquiries in coun- that the informations hitherto taken had proceeded cil. With regard to his principles relative to the upon oath. Khân Jehan Khân had previously natives and their complaints, if they are admitted, declared to General Clavering his readiness to be they are of a tendency to cut off the very prin- so examined; but, when called upon by the ciple of redress. The existence of the supreme board, he changed his mind, and alleged a delicourt, as a means of relief to the natives under all cacy, relative to his rank, with regard to the oath. oppressions, is held out to qualify a refusal to hear In this scruple he was strongly supported by Mr. in the council. On the same pretence Mr. Hast- Hastings. He and Mr. Barwell went further; ings holds up the authority of the same tribunal. they contended, that the council had no right to But this and other proceedings show abundantly administer an oath. They must have been very of what efficacy that court has been for the relief clear in that opinion, when they resisted the exof the unhappy people of Bengal. A person in amination on oath of the very person, who, if he delegated authority refuses a satisfaction to his could safely swear to Mr. Hastings's innocence, superiours, throwing himself on a court of justice, owed it as a debt to his patron not to refuse it; and supposes, that nothing but what judicially and of the payment of this debt it was extraorappears against him is a fit subject of enquiry. dinary in the patron not only to enforce but to But even in this Mr. Hastings fails in his appli- support the absolute refusal. cation of his principle; for the majority of the council were undoubtedly competent to order a prosecution against him in the supreme court, which they had no ground for without a previous enquiry. But their enquiry had other objects. No private accuser might choose to appear. The party, who was the subject of the peculation, might be (as here is stated) the accomplice in it. No popular action, or popular suit, was provided by the charter, under whose authority the court was instituted. In any event, a suit might fail in the court for the punishment of an actor in an abuse for want of the strictest legal proof, which might yet furnish matter for the correction of the abuse, and even reasons strong enough not only to justify, but to require, the directors instantly to address for the removal of a governour-general. The opposition of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell" the wisdom of parliament, that constituted a proved as ineffectual in this stage as the former; and a day was named by the majority for the attendance of the party.

Although the majority did not acquiesce in this doctrine, they appeared to have doubts of the prudence of enforcing it by violent means; but, construing his refusal into a disposition to screen the peculations of the governour-general, they treated him as guilty of a contempt of their board, dismissed him from the service, and recommended another (not the accuser) to his office.

The reasons on both sides appear in the Appendix. Mr. Hastings accuses them bitterly of injustice to himself in considering the refusal of this person to swear as a charge proved. How far they did so, and under what qualifications, will appear by reference to the papers in the Appendix. But Mr. Hastings" thanks God, that they are not "his judges." His great hold, and not without reason, is the supreme court; and he "blesses

"court of judicature at so seasonable a time, to "check the despotism of the new council." It was thought in England, that the court had other objects than the protection of the governour-general against the examinations of those sent out with instructions to enquire into the peculations of men in power.

Though Mr. Hastings did at that time, and avowedly did, every thing to prevent any enquiry, that was instituted merely for the information of

the court of directors, yet he did not feel himself | "him in a court of justice, will not leave the thoroughly satisfied with his own proceedings. It" shadow of a doubt concerning his guilt in the was evident, that to them his and Mr. Barwell's reasonings would not appear very respectful or satisfactory; he therefore promises to give them full satisfaction at some future time. In his letter of the 14th of September 1775, he reiterates a former declaration, and assures them of his resolution to this purpose in the strongest terms.

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"mind of any unprejudiced person.--The salary "is 72,000 rupees a year; the governour takes "36,000, and allows Cantoo Baboo four thousand "more for the trouble he submits to in conduct"ing the negociation with the Phousdar. This "also is the common subject of conversation and "derision through the whole settlement.-It is our firm opinion and belief, that the late Phous"dar of Hughley, a relation of Mahomed Reza "Cawn, was turned out of this office merely because his terms were not so favourable as those, "which the honourable governour-general has "obtained from the present Phousdar.

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66 now again recur to the declaration, which I have "before made, that it is my fixed determination "to carry literally into execution, and most fully "and liberally explain, every circumstance of my "conduct on the points upon which I have been "injuriously arraigned; and to afford you the "clearest conviction of my own integrity, and of "the propriety of my motives for my declining a present defence of it."

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These motives, as far as they can be discovered, were the violence of his adversaries, the interested character and views of the accuser, and the danger of a prosecution in the supreme court, which made it prudent to reserve his defence. These arguments are applicable to any charge. Notwithstanding these reasons, it is plain by the above letter, that he thought himself bound, at some time or other, to give satisfaction to his masters; till he should do this, in his own opinion he remained in an unpleasant situation. But he bore his misfortune, it seems, patiently, with a confidence in their justice for his future relief. He says, "whatever evil may fill the long interval which may precede it."-That interval he has taken care to make long enough, for near eight years are now elapsed, and he has not yet taken the smallest step towards giving to the court of directors any explanation whatever; much less that full and liberal explanation, which he had so repeatedly and solemnly promised.

"The honourable governour-general is pleased "to assert, with a confidential spirit peculiar to "himself, that his measures hitherto stand unimpeached, except by us. We know not how this "assertion is to be made good, unless the most daring and flagrant prostitution in every branch "be deemed an honour to his administration."

The whole style and tenour of these accusations, as well as the nature of them, rendered Mr. Hastings's first postponing, and afterwards totally declining, all denial, or even defence or explanation, very extraordinary. No governour ought to hear in silence such charges; and no court of directors ought to have slept upon them.

The court of directors were not wholly inattentive to this business. They condemned this act as it deserved, and they went into the business of his legal right to dissolve the council. Their opinions seemed against it, and they gave precise orders against the use of any such power in future. On consulting Mr. Sayer, the company's counsel, he was of a different opinion with regard to the legal right; but he thought, very properly, that the use of a right, and the manner and purposes for which it was used, ought not to have been separated. What he thought on this occasion appears in his opinion, transmitted by the court of directors to Mr. Hastings and the council-general; "but it was as great a crime to dissolve the council upon base and sinister motives, as it would be to

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assume the power of dissolving, if he had it not. "I believe he is the first governour that ever "dissolved a council enquiring into his behaviour, "when he was innocent. Before he could sum

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mon three councils and dissolve them, he had "time fully to consider what would be the result "of such conduct, to convince every body, be"yond a doubt, of his conscious guilt."

It is to be observed, that though Mr. Hastings talks in these letters much of his integrity, and of the purity of his motives, and of full explanations, he no where denies the fact of this corrupt traffick of office. Though he had adjourned his defence with so much pain to himself to so very long a day, he was not so inattentive to the ease of Khân Jehan Khân as he has shewn himself to his own. He had been accused of corruptly reserving to himself a part of the emoluments of this man's office; it was a delicate business to handle, whilst his defence stood adjourned; yet, in a very short time after a majority came into his hands, he turned out the person appointed by General Clavering, &c. and replaced the very man with whom It was a matter but of small consolation to Mr. he stood accused of the corrupt bargain; what Hastings, during the painful interval he describes, was worse, he had been charged with originally to find, that the company's learned counsel adturning out another, to make room for this man.mitted, that he had legal powers, of which he made The whole is put in strong terms by the then ma- an use, that raised an universal presumption of his jority of the council; where, after charging him guilt. with every species of peculation, they add, "we believe, the proofs of his appropriating four parts in seven of the salary, with which the company is charged for the Phousdar of Hughley, are such as, whether sufficient or not to convict

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Other counsel did not think so favourably of the powers themselves. But this matter was of less consequence, because a great difference of opinion may arise concerning the extent of official powers, even among men professionally educated,

(as in this case such a difference did arise) and | tradiction to the company's orders, has been stated well-intentioned men may take either part. But in the Ninth Report, as well as in many others the use, that was made of it, in systematical con- made by two of your committees.

It has been thought proper to insert here the first nine numbers of the Appendix B. to the Eleventh Report, as necessary for the elucidation of the subject-matter of that Report.

APPENDIX B. No. 1.