engaged. The charges however, upon which he was to expatiate, pointed to grofs malverfation in of fice, to illegal bargain and fale of public fituations, to connivance at fraudulent abule, to the d'fmiffion and difgrace of those who had flown themfelves anxious for reform, and to the countenance and protection of those by whom it had been oppofed. Speaking of the difimiffion of lord Tankerville, Mr. Grey faid, that he had been facrificed for the fake of arrangements in favour of a nobleman, [lord Hawkesbury] who had feated Mr. Pitt in his prefent fituation, and against whofe intereft the difimiffion of a whole administration did not weigh a feather. Mr. Grey moved, that it appeared to the houfe" that great abufes had prevailed in the post-office, and that, having been made known to his majesty's minitters, it was their duty without lofs of time to make ufe of fuch meafures, as were proper to reform them." The motion was feconded by fir John Aubrey, one of the lords of the treafury.

Mr. Baring rofe in defence of the commithioners under the office reform-bill, of which he was one. He faid, they had firft gone into the old board of trade office, next into the fecretary of Date's office, and then to the admiralty-office; from thence into the pay-office of the navy, and they were now in the navy-office. He obferved, that they were not directed by the act to make reports to that houfe, but to the lords of the treafury. The fact was, they had made three reports long ago, and fhould have made another before now, had it not been for the extreme arduoufnefs of their prefent object of enquiry. Mr. Baring concluded, that he could fooner compofe a whole report, like

thofe of the commiffioners of accounts, than write a fingle line of fuch a report, as ought to come from the commiffion of which he was a member.

Mr. Pitt began with obferving upon the fingularity of Mr. Grey's conduct, who had commenced his political career in an early part of the feffion with an opposition, a reluctant one, as he had faid, to a particular meafure of government, and had accompanied that oppofition with profeffions of great perfonal regard for himself, and of a defire, as far as he could do it confiftently with his duty as a member of parliament, to give his general fupport to administration. Notwithstanding this, Mr. Pitt could not but fay, that he thought the prefent a wanton attack upon government, an attack conducted in a manner highly perfonal and difrefpectful to him, and which favoured of the utmoft afperity of party. All, that could be done in the work of reformation, ought to be done by the executive government; and, in fuch trivial inftances, refort could only be had to parliament, when it thould appear, that administration had oblinately neglected that neceffary part of their duty. Mr. Pitt appealed to the office reformbill, to determine whether fuch a neglect was imputable to him. He obferved, that it had been thought.. advifeable for the commiffioners to begin with departments of the higheft rank, in order to remove any impreffion, as if their examination were a derogation from the dignity of thofe, who prefided over the feveral offices. They were now in the navy-office, and he believed, that no perfon, who knew the na ture of that department, would bring it into comparison with the petty abufes of the poll-office, or

would

would with its examination and reform to be delayed for an hour. Mr. Pitt added, that the neceffity of removing one of the poftmafters, had afforded an opportunity of ac commodating lord Hawkesbury, but that it was not true, that the vacancy had been made upon his account. To that nobleman gentlemen might allude as often and in what manner they pleafed, fo long as he was perfuaded, that every favour which was conferred upon him, fince he had any fhare in administration, had been fully earned by the most able and meritorious fervices. He acknowledged that the annual allowance to Mr. Treves was certainly an abufe, and one which the houfe ought not to countenance; but upon the whole the circumftances were not attended even with any imputed corruption in lord Carteret, nor was the fubject by any means of fufficient confequence for parliamentary cenfure.

Mr. Sheridan obferved, that Mr. Pitt had animadverted with great apparent firmnefs upon what had been faid by Mr. Grey; but he must excufe him, if he did not give entire credit to the manner of those animadverfions, but on the contrary took the liberty of afferting, that the minifter felt, and feverely felt the reprchenfion that had been given. He denied that Mr. Grey had profeffed any perfonal refpect for Mr. Pitt, but had merely given him credit for the goodness of his intention, and had asked the faine credit in return. If Mr. Grey had faid any thing improper, though he were a young member, yet, confidering the talents and ability he had fhown, he would agree, that fuch a young member was as little pardonable for any error, as the oldest member of the house. On

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the prefent occafion however he muft affert, that he had not merited the reproof, which the minister, the veteran statesman of four years experience, the Neftor of twentyfive, had been pleafed to bestow upon him. Mr. Sheridan recurred to the office reform-bill, and remarked, that the tranfaction of Mr. Treves came within the meaning of a claufe, by which it was declared, that any perfon guilty of fuch practices fhould be incapable of ferying his majefty in any civil ca pacity. It was a fingular account that Mr. Baring had given of the proceedings of the commiffioners. They had gone first into the office of the old board of trade, to enquire what abufes had formerly been practifed in an office that no longer exifted. They had gone next into the fecretary of ftate's office, an office of all others leaft siable to abufe. If there were any abufe, it was, that the deputy fe. cretary of state, whofe duty was arduous and important, was by no means fufficiently paid., Mr. Sheridan had never confidered the office reform-bill as a profcription of all future enquiry. But from Mr. Pitt's argument of that day it appeared, that he had furrendered his understanding, when he brought in his bill, and was determined to hear only with Mr. Baring's ears, and to fee with the eyes of fir John Dick: two of the commiffioners, the former of whom is deaf, and the latter blind.

Mr. Fox remarked that he thought the whole proceeding extraordinary, and, with regard to the member who had brought forward the enquiry, unfair and unhandfome. If it had been meant to do nothing, why did they fuffer the committee to be appointed at all? The fact was, that, when Mr. Pitt con

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fented, he had thought, that Mr. Grey could not prove his facts, and that the whole would end in his difappointment and difgrace. Mr. Fox obferved, that Mr. Pitt had now for the first time publicly boafted of the fervices of lord Hawkesbury. In the hour of danger and conteft his name had never ventured to be mentioned He examined lord 'Hawkesbury's claims to applaufe, and faid, that, exclufively of thofe parts of his conduct, which he had uniformly denied, but which they knew to be true, his public life had been as little diftinguifhed by acts of meritorious fervices, as that of any man living. Mr. Fox replied to what Mr. Pitt had faid of Mr. Grey's being a party man, and

declared, that he was not of that defcription, but he hoped, that by degrees he might become fo. As long as there were great conftitational queftions refpecting which men differed in opinion, to be a party man was to act most honourably. Mr. Fox faid, that he should vote for the queflion, though he had not advised the bringing it for ward, nor fhould have recommended it, becaufe he did not think it of a fize proportioned to Mr. Grey's character and importance. Lord Maitland having moved the previous question, it was carried without a divifion, and the farther confideration of the report adjourned to that day three months.

LIOTH

CA

N preceding volume we

A bufinefs of this fort is fome

en

courfe of parliamentary tranfactions, and might be fuppofed to require to be treated in a different manner. To record only the fpeeches of the feveral debaters might appear to be the business of a parliamentary regifter. To enter minutely into the feveral topics of evidence would be to croach upon the office of a state trial. To examine the motives of the accufers, and the character of the accufed; to investigate the neceffity of the profecution, the propriety of the proceedings, and the legality or rectitude of the menfure; finally, to afcertain the confequences, that must reful; from

fuch

fuch a profecution, whether the accufed perfon be found guilty, or whether he be acquitted, thele are what constitute the province of hif. tory. But we feel our incapacity to fill this province. The materials before us are of courfe imperfect, evidence remains to be produced of which we cannot precifely afcertain the nature and the force, and the general catastrophe is effentially necetary to give luminoufnefs and demonstration to the whole. The proceedings of the trial will hereafter be published, and it is not impoffible, that the best informed mind fhould feel and think differently, when he rifes from the perufal of that grand volume, than when he is judging only from partial, fcattered and defultory extracts. It is impoffible that the most enlightened mind fhould not derive fome information from that fource. But, if our judgment were ever fo complete, and our confidence ever fo unbounded, we could not exprefs ourselves with the neceffary freedom, when we confider that the trial is depending at the moment in which we write. Preffed then on the one hand with thefe and many other obvious difadvantages, and on the other with the nature of our undertaking and the impatience of our readers, we shall be excufed in attempting nothing more, than an abridgement of the arguments that were employed upon the fubject. Even here we are not wholly at our eafe, owing to that indifpofition for the fubject to which we have already alluded. One of our newfpiper compilers of debates has apologifed for his abfence from an important difcuffion in the beginning of the profecution, by obferving, "that he did not imagine the public would show any great eagerness, to listen to the tail of an old fong."

It is out of thefe heads and tails of a debate, out of thefe disjointed members of fome of the nobleft exhibitions of oratory that the world has produced, that we are to com pile our account.

Mr. Burke introduced his motion, for impeaching Mr. Haftings on the ground of the Rohilla war, with feveral reflections on the merits of the profecution. He spoke with great emphasis of the magnitude of the fubject, and folemnly invoked the attention of the houfe. The charge muft either be in a high de gree criminal, or it must be an unjuft and falfe accufation. There was no medium and no alternative! Either Mr. Haltings had been guilty of grofs, enormous and flagitious crimes; or he was a bafe, calum niatory, wicked and malicious ac cufer. He stated a high degree of guilt as afcribable to that man, who fhould urge groundlefs and ill-founded charges, against a perfon whọ had been intrufted with the govern ment of a part of our territories larger and more extenfive than the whole island of Great Britain. For a private man to fuggeft fuch charges would be to be guilty of a fcandalous libel; and for a man to endeavour to obtain for himself the colour of authority, and to Teek to hurl down the thunder of parlia mentary vengeance upon the head of an innocent individual, deferved to roufe the juftice, and call down the punishment of the houfe. He had made up his mind completely upon the fubject, and was prepared to fubmit to the feveret penalty, fhould it appear, that he had wantonly and rafhly preferred a groundless charge. There were but three motives, that were known to actuate men, and to excite them to turn accufers; ignor ance, inadvertency and paffion.

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