the Court. They were met to-day to exercise a very important prerogative, and should be careful of the manner in which they were so to exercise it, as the exertion of that prerogative, in the way originally proposed, did involve an implied, if not a direct censure by their body, upon the Court of Directors. In the hope, therefore, that the amendment was calculated to meet the object which he was sure both they and this Court must have in view, he begged leave to second it. (Hear!) He had no doubt that the Hon. Proprietors who sate around him must have participated in all those sentiments which had been so ably expressed by the worthy Proprietor who first addressed the Court. For his own part, he would confess that he shared them in no common degree. There were undoubtedly a variety of rumours abroad, to which he should not even advert, (Hear!) and in this respect,in the practice of this caution,- the Hon. Gentleman had shewn his wisdom. (Hear!) In that wisdom he (Mr. Poynder) should endeavour to imitate him: observing, by the way, that the whole conduct of the Hon. Proprietor in the Court this day had been most manly and becoming. He joined the Hon. Proprietor who last addressed the Court, in all the commendations that had been bestowed, or that so humble an individual as himself could bestow, upon that particular part of the Hon. Member's address, in which that gentleman (Mr. Kinnaird) so handsomely adverted to what had fallen from him on a former day.-Hear!) In their approbation of such conduct and such acknowledgments, every one who heard him must cordially concur. At the same time, in his (Mr. Poynder's) opinion, so strong a censure would be conveyed upon the Directors themselves (after what had taken place), if some arrangement calculated to meet the difficulties that surrounded this question were not prepared, that he was satisfied the Court of Proprietors, before they could come to any decision on such a subject, would deem it fit to entertain the proposition that had just been submitted to them. (Hear!) The address which they had heard that morning from the Hon. Gentleman was certainly very able; but it met only a part of this momentous case. To that Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Smith) he was very far indeed from imputing any thing like designing by his motion, a "suppressio veri;" a figure, as the logicians very well knew, that bordered closely upon the "suggestio falsi.' At the same time, while the original motion met one object, it lost sight of another; and though he (Mr. Poynder) went the full length of the Hon. Gentleman's position as to the gratitude which the Court must feel to the Marquess of Hastings for his merits and capacity in the government Asiatic Journ.-No. 100.

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of India; still he thought the Hon. Gentleman had not made out that case, at present, so as to enable the Court of Proprietors to act towards the Noble Marquess as they could wish to do. (Hear!) With respect to those votes of thanks which had been tendered to the Marquis of Hastings at different times, by Parliament, by the Court of Directors sanctioned by the Board of Controul, and indeed by the whole country, it was true it had been stated, that they were well merited, and had been formally given. But the Court of Proprietors, on the present occasion, could not shut their eyes and ears to what was going on, at least within the Court; they must see that considerable differences of sentiment existed among honourable gentlemen on the other side of the bar(the Directors).(Hear!) Undoubtedly it was essential to them (the Court), as a Proprietary, that they should be immediately put in possession of some other and more authentic information on the matters now before the Court, than they at present had; he therefore apprehended it to be competent to any Proprietor - and he should himself have made the same sort of appeal to the Court to day, had he not been anticipated by the Honourable Proprietor (Mr. Smith),-to ask for such further papers and documents, as might elu. cidate any transaction into which the Court should deem it advisable to make any inquiry, before they came to their final determination in respect of the Marquess of Hastings. And this he should have done, acting upon that apothegin of Lord Bacon, "prudens interrogatio dimi"dium scientiæ." To be sure it might be objected, that there was not perhaps much of prudence in the questions to be asked; (a laugh), but for the reasons that had been stated, he repeated that he with great pleasure seconded the amendment.(Hear!)

The Chairman observed, it now became his duty to put the question "that the "words originally proposed do stand part "of the question.' Before he proceeded to take the sense of the Court upon it, he would state, that it was not from any want of attention to the Hon. Proprietor (Mr. Kinnaird) that he had not before risen, to pay his tribute of praise to those feelings of regret which had been expressed that day by the Hon. Proprietor, with respect to any thing of a nature disrespectful to the Court of Directors, that might have fallen from him on a former occasion.(Hear, hear!) The expressions alluded to the Hon. Proprietor had, in the most honourable and handsome manner, explained: and he (the Chairman) agreed with another Hon. Proprietor (Mr. John Smith) that such conduct was no more than might have been expected from a gentleman of his (Mr. Kinnaird's) character and rank in VOL. XVII. 3 L

society. (Hear). He was however confident that the Court of Directors would feel with him, that, in the instance he adverted to, nothing had fallen from that Hon. Proprietor but what might be attributed to his over zeal in the cause of a friend; and here he begged to drop the subject.(Hear, hear.) The Hon. Proprietor, in alluding to the silence of the chair upon that occasion, had said, that he thought the Chairman was by such conduct only giving sanction and currency to the rumours that were afloat, of a nature prejudicial to the character of the Marquess of Hastings. If such had been the case, no one more regretted the circumstance than himself. But the fact was, that he (the Chairman), when those questions were propounded to him, felt himself under a considerable difficulty, owing, he must say, to the want of courtesy that appeared on the part of the Gallant General, whom he saw in Court. (Hear, from Sir John Doyle.) Of that want of courtesy he was however satisfied that the Gallant General was not himself aware at the time, or he would, as was usual, have communicated his questions to the Chairman before the meeting of the Court. The Gallant General not having so done, he considered his questions to be in substance a continuation of the correspondence which had passed between the Hon. Baronet's gallant relative Colonel Doyle, whose friendship for the Noble Marquess was well known, and the Court; he must however observe, that as the Court of Directors had thought it expedient not to answer those queries, he could not, as their Chairman, state more or less than what they had previously determined.(Hear, hear, hear!) If any Hon. Proprietor thought that the Court of Directors had acted erroneously in the view which they had taken of the matter, he (the Chairman) should be ready to take his full share of their responsibility. (Hear.) He was yet to learn (and in saying this he was not alluding to any particular case,. but was speaking with reference to general. principles) how the Court of Directors on that occasion, with any regard to equity, or with respect to the system upon which the affairs of the East India Company were conducted, could do either more or less than they had done on the occasion? (Hear!) Let the Court of Proprietors consider the peculiar situation in which the Directors were placed: If they auswered the questions then put to him by the Noble Marquess's friend, they of necessity laid themselves open to the liability of being called upon to answer every question that might be addressed to them in a similar way, by any individual who might have business under the Court's consideration. He felt it necessary to make another observation

with respect to his silence on that day; he might, when called upon by the Gallant General, have immediately referred to the Ccurt's recorded decision as communicated to Colonel Doyle; but had he done so, as the Gallant General did not bring that circumstance before the Court, he would have rendered himself liable to be charged with a voluntary publication prejudicial to the character of the Noble Marquess, by communicating that the Court of Directors had declined to answer the questions put to them by his friend. (Hear, hear!) An Hon, Proprietor smiled at this; but if he thought that he (the Chairman) had done wrong, he hoped that Hon. Proprietor would attribute his failing to an error in judgment, and to that alone. (Hear!)

Mr. Hume felt quite sure that his Honourable Friend (Mr. J. Smith), who had moved an amendment, could not be master of the proceedings which had already taken place in relation to the subject before the Court; (Hear!) for if his Honourable Friend had been possessed of them, he would certainly have altogether altered his mode of proceeding. (Hear.) In the first place, he would ask his Honourable Friend why he had felt himself entitled to say, that there was at present nothing before the Court of Proprietors to warrant them in taking into consideration the conduct of the Marquess of Hastings? (Hear.) He (Mr. Hume) was quite satisfied that his Honourable Friend could not have been present when the proceedings of the General Court were read; -had he been, he never would have made the statement which he had that morning advanced; and of this fact he thought he should be able to convince his Honourable Friend before he sat down. It was not necessary, after the great detail in which an Honourable Proprietor (Mr. Kinnaird) had introduced this question, for him (Mr. Hume) to occupy their time by going through the same documents again: he would not, therefore, notice otherwise than in passing, the resolutions which had been passed in the year 1817. There were, since that year, two separate distinct votes of thanks to the Marquess of Hastings agreed to At that period, it would be remembered, very considerable discussions took place in that Court in respect of them; and though he himself was one who did not concur in the manner in which those votes were framed, for reasons which he then assigned, (for he complained that they thanked the Marquess solely for his military achievements, without doing justice to his greater and more valuable civil services as a statesman and a governor ;)-yet those thanks were the result of a deliberate vote of the Court of Proprietors, sanctioned by the Court of Directors (Hear, hear!); and therefore he had a right to take the approbation

He

which those thanks conveyed, as the opinion of the Proprietors. This vote was followed up by a vote of the Court of Proprietors in 1819; and that, again, was succeeded by a vote of money, in confirmation of the different votes of thanks. now came to the period at which the Noble Marquess was to relinquish the government of India. And here he would say, that he was morally certain there was no man in that Court, nay in all England, who was at all times more conscientiously anxious to do justice to all, than his Honourable Friend (Mr. J. Smith); and yet before he (Mr. Hume) concluded, he hoped to satisfy both him and the Court that an act of greater injustice (Hear, hear) was never attempted to be committed, than the amendment proposed by his Honourable Friend would go to effect.(Hear.) Now to come to the papers and records that were before the Court. Upon the 29th of May 1822, there appeared a resotion to the following effect: " At a Court "of Directors, held, &c. on the 29th "May 1822,-Resolved Unanimously."

(Let it be recollected, that this was the resolution of a Court of Directors, not of Proprietors, and therefore it was particularly in point upon the present occasion :)— "That this Court, highly appreciating

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the signal merits and services of the Most "Noble the Marquess of Hastings, Knight "of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, "and Knight Grand Cross of the Most "Honourable Military Order of the Bath, "and Governor-General of India, are "anxious to place on the records of the "East-India Company their expression "of deep regret that family circumstances "have led to a declaration on the part of "that distinguished Nobleman of his wish "to be relieved from the duties of his ex"alted station."

"And the Court, being desirous that the "sense they entertain of the conduct and "services of the Marquess of Hastings "should be promulgated previously to his

departure for Europe”(undoubtedly, this was in order that it might be known in India, before the Marquess should leave it, in what manner his great services were looked upon by his masters in Europe),-" have further, Re"solved unanimously, that the thanks "of this Court be given to the Most "Noble the Marquess of Hastings, "K. G. and G. C. B., for the unre

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mitting zeal and eminent ability with "which, during a period of nearly nine 86 years, he has administered the Govern"ment of British India, with such high "credit to himself, and advantage to "the interests of the East-India Com"pany."

Now the Court of Directors were, as he (Mr. Hume) believed, fully sensible that they might be challenged to produce

the papers which were now asked for. And he thought the speech of the Chairman, upon the occasion he was speaking of, it might be important to call the Court's attention to. The Chairman said-"The business which the Proprietors were assembled to consider was one that required but very little introduction on his part; the merits of the Noble Person, whom they had that day met to thank, were ac. knowledged on all hands to be of the most exalted and signal character,_and therefore he was persuaded that the Court of Proprietors would concur in the deliberate sentiments which the Court of Directors had recorded of those merits. It was usual on these occasions to state to the Proprietors the preliminary vote to which the Court of Directors had agreed, and it sometimes happened that that vote was proposed to the Court of Proprietors for their adoption; but that course would not now be taken, as it was considered more gratifying to the Proprietors themselves, as well as more complimentary to the noble individual in question, to leave it entirely to the Court to take such steps as might appear best calculated to attain the object they all had in view. The object of the vote which the Court of Directors had come to, was not to praise any particular act of this noble person's administration"

Then, he would ask, why should his Honourable Friend (Mr. J. Smith), or any other Honourable Proprietor, move for papers, at present, that had a reference to one "particular act," and one act only, of the Noble Marquess's long administration? (Hear, hear). If it was the wish of the Court, as he presumed it was, to take a general view of the whole public conduct of the Marquess of Hastings in India, why did his Hon. Friend move for documents that related only to one specific, isolated act? (Hear). He (Mr. Hume) would tell the Court, before he concluded. The speech went on,-" But to place on the records of the Company their opinion of his general conduct during a period of nine years. On that account they had not deemed it necessary to produce any papers; for the history of the Noble Marquess, was to be found in every document which had been transmitted from India for several years past."

But he would not further tire the Court with these quotations and testimonials, except that he would just state thus much: that after this last period, there seemed to have been but one unanimous opinion among the Directors and Proprietors upon the subject of the Noble Marquess's services and merits; it was therefore most important that, if any thing had since occurred to affect that question, that there should be laid, and indeed it was the duty of the Court of Directors to lay before

this Court, a statement of all such proceedings as might have tended to induce that alteration of opinion. (Hear, hear). Then why, it might be asked, had his Hon. Friend (Mr. Kinnaird) moved for the papers which formed the subject of his motion? Why, for the very reason that had been assigned by his other Hon. Friend (Mr. J. Smith), who had moved the amendment: because there were reports, insinuations and rumours abroad, respecting the distinguished Nobleman in question, which he (Mr. Hume), for one, believed to be false. (Hear!) And yet that Hon. Proprietor (Mr. J. Smith), after the expression of a similar opinion, had moved, before he sat down, for those very Hyderabad papers, upon accusations relative to transactions in that part of India, which he professed to consider false and unfounded, (hear, hear!) and which he therefore would not believe. But (which was yet more inconsistent) his Hon. Friend (Mr. J. Smith) had said, "the Proprietors, in this matter, knew nothing.' And yet, in a moment afterwards, his Hon. Friend had added "that he knew that the Directors had taken into consideration the services of the noble Marquis, and had determined not to give him £5,000 a-year." Now he (Mr. Hume), contended that here his Hon. Friend's assertion applied to himself: he, as a Proprietor, could know nothing about the business. (Hear!) How did his Hon. Friend know that to be the fact?

The Chairman-Mr. Smith might know it, because on a former day Mr. Pattison had said as much.

Mr. Hume.-But his Hon. Friend had also said, that he knew that the Directors had papers relative to the matter in question before them. How did he know that? (Hear!) At least his Hon. Friend had no right to know it; it was a piece of partial, unofficial information; and he thought such information as ought to have induced his Hon. Friend to adopt quite a different course. A question had been put to him (Mr. Hume) by the Hon. Proprietor (Mr. Kinnaird), as to the way in which he should bring this matter before this Court. He had immediately answered his Hon. Friend, that he had no doubt that, up to a certain period, the Noble Marquess's conduct stood perfectly unimpeached. His Hon. Friend (Mr. Kinnaird) had no authority to go on: but there were reports of a malicious nature abroad, to the general effect, that something had occurred under the Government in India of a peculiar and an unpleasant nature. He had undertaken to tel! his Hon. Friend, that it would be his own most anxious wish that the papers necessary for the illustration of the Noble Individual's public conduct, from the period last spoken of to the present

time, should be laid before the Court; and his Hon. Friend expressed his intention of moving accordingly. He (Mr. Hume) had further observed, that if his Hon. Friend had been a member of the Secret Committee, he might have had it in his power to make the necessary selection of papers, and to move for the production of the documents so selected; but that, under present circumstances, his only way would be, to bring the Noble Marquis's conduct before the Court of Proprietors upon the broadest possible view. Let the Court compare the conduct of the Company towards his Lordship on former occasions, let them call that to their recollection, and ask whether they had not already come to two specific votes of thanks to him? Perhaps he (Mr. Hume) stood at that moment in the Court, the only inan who warmly opposed those votes, urging the Court of Proprietors to take the Noble Marquess's actions as a statesman and a civil governor into their view; to consider whether or no he had acted up to the duties of those stations; and if they thought that he had, not to content themselves with looking at his services in a mere military point of view, in case it should turn out that such military services were mere ag. gressions upon those against whom they had been directed.—(Hear!) He appealed to the Court whether this was not the language that he (Mr. Hume) had held upon the occasions in question?—(Hear !) He had, in holding it, endeavoured to put himself in the situation of the Noble Marquess, and to enter into his feelings; and that he had done so with success, he inferred from the Noble Marquess's letter to the House of Commons, in which, while he thanked them for what they had done, he seemed to think that he had performed services of a much higher character than the directing the operations of the military force of India. Though he did not say as much in express terms, yet the letter went to this that the question of his civil services in the government of India being of much greater moment than any thing to which the vote for his military achievements had reference, he might in justice have expected that those civil merits would also have been taken into consideration. Now, was it too much to assume that they who had signed or as sented to a favourable opinion upon the Marquess of Hastings' conduct, who had looked over those records, those honourable views of his Lordship's career which had been laid before this Court; and those votes, which had been agreed to elsewhere, were bound to support the motion before them? (Hear!) Was it honourable in them to say that there was or was not a time, at which the conduct of this Noble Individual, like that of all others, should he deliberately considered?-Hear!) And

if upon such papers the opinions of Honourable Proprietors upon the merits and services of the Marquess of Hastings, up to a certain period, should remain unchanged; then the question for the Court would be, had all former governors received, at the expiration of their governments, some rewards; or had they been entirely neglected and passed over?-(Hear!) If the answer were, that they had been rewarded, then in the present case the Court were bound to state that there were grounds for this exclusion, and also what those grounds were. He (Mr. Hume) said, as one of those who sate outside the bar, that he could not put his finger upon the particular act of the Noble Marquess that could have influenced the Court of Directors. The Honourable Proprietor (Mr. D. Kinnaird) had therefore taken the only sensible and respectful course. When he said it was "a respectful course," he meant this: that his Honourable Friend had not taken upon himself to suggest to the Court what papers ought to be laid before them; much less would he have had the temerity to commit such an injustice as he would have been guilty of, if, in taking a review of a man's conduct for nine years, in the government of a vast country, he were to move for papers relative to one specific act only. That he put it to his Hon. Friend (Mr. J. Smith) whether that amendment of his could be persevered in, consistently with any principles of honour, of propriety, or of gratitude, as regarded the feeling with which the Court was bound to look upon the services that had been rendered to the Company by the Marquess of Hastings.(Hear!) But what he had concurred with his Hon. Friend in thinking, when the motion before the Court was first suggested, and what he contended for to-day, and would join any Hon. Proprie tor in moving for, was, that if any motion were made at all, it ought to be for ALL papers connected with the conduct of the Noble Marquess, and let the enquiry be into the whole of those matters. He would still maintain that another mode of proceeding could not be adopted. But he would state to his Hon. Friend (Mr. Smith), that as they were not acquainted with the transactions to which his speech had referred, and as it could not be considered decorous in a public body to take up those vague and uncertain reports, he thought (if he might so far assume the authority of the Chairman), that the Court would not be warranted in proceeding at all upon such reports; nor would common propriety warrant them, as a great, opulent, and most important body, to do so. He perfectly agreed with those who maintained, that if there was any one rule of more moment than another, for the observance of any such public body, it was, that they should not act upon vague and anonymous

rumours. (Hear!) If they were once to neglect this rule, there would be an end to the fairness and regularity of all their proceedings. He recommended his Hon. Friend (Mr. Smith) to call, therefore, a Court of Proprietors; to remind them of the votes they had given; and then to ask, not for the Hyderabad papers alone, but also for all other papers that might enable them to decide upon the questions that had been raised about the Marquess. Either the Marquess of Hastings was to blame, or he was not to blame. If his Lordship was to blame, and he would suppose the case of his being blameable in the particular transaction which had been adverted to-putting it, however, merely as a supposed case he had committed a fault, and where was the man whose conduct in such a number of years had been without one?— (Hear, hear!) But if this fault had been committed, did it countervail all the advantages and benefits that the Company had derived from his services?—(Hear!) Or was it fit that it should be acted upon without examination or inquiry? Supposing, however, on the contrary, that no blame at all was imputable to the Marquess, would his Hon. Friend (Mr.J. Smith) be prepared to say, that if these Hyderabad papers were on the table of the Proprietors, and nothing should result from them for or against the Marquess of Hastings, that their production alone would satisfy either the Court of Proprietors or the Directors, or the public mind, or, above all, the Marquess himself?

(Hear!) Would it not be felt, that more was to be seen than documents relative to one single fact? and would it not be necessary to satisfy the minds of men with respect to the remainder of his Lordship's public conduct? He (Mr. Hume) was convinced, from the high and unsullied character which his Hon. Friend was known to possess, and of which he himself had had a considerable experience, that he (Mr. Smith) would, upon a second view of the matter, perceive that he was not about to do that justice which he must in his own mind have proposed to do by the amendment he had submitted. But the motion of his other Hon. Friend (Mr. D. Kinnaird) embraced every thing that the interests of the case and of justice required: for it proposed, "That it be referred to the Court of Directors forthwith to take into their consideration, and report to this Court, their judgment upon papers relative to the whole public conduct of Lord Hastings." Now what would the amendment go to? What would the refusal of the Court to accede to the original motion for the production of papers, generally, imply? Why, that up to this period, the reports that were abroad received a certain degree of confirmation. If the Directors declined or disputed granting the object of the motion, such a course on