Towards the close of the preceding session of parliament, Mr. Paull, a gentleman lately returned from India, had come forward in the house of commons as the accuser of marquis Wellesley, and had obtained orders for the production of various papers to substantiate his charges. Early in the present session he resumed the subject; and, though the change of ministry, which soon after followed, was fatal to his hopes of active or strenuous support from any of the great parties in parlia ment, he continued to urge his ac cusation with unabated constancy and perseverance. The firmness and intrepidity which he displayed in this business, upon several trying occasions, would have entitled him -to the highest praise, had these qualities been accompanied with judgment, temper, or discretion. But, fortunately for marquis Wellesley, Mr. Paull was eminently deficient in these qualifications; nor was he possessed of the parliamentary knowledge, personal consideration and ability, or political weight, necessary to give to his accusations their due effect against an adversary, so for midable by his credit and connexions as the object of his attack. The rashness and impatience of his temper gave advantages to his oppoments in the house of commons, of which they disdained not to avail themselves, while his unacquaintance with the forms and rules of procedure in parliament, and his ramb. ling digressive oratory involved him at once in difficulties, and exposed him to ridicule. It must at the same time be confessed, that Mr. Paull had to contend with no small difficulties in procur. ing a patient and impartial hearing of his case. Discussions on India had for many years met with a most inattentive and reluctant auditory it the house of commons, and no one who recollected, or had taken part in the trial of Mr. Hastings, was disposed to embark in the intricacies and difficulties of another Indian impeachment. The partizans of lord Wellesley, and admirers of his administration of India, were numerous and powerful in the house of commons, and eager and even violent in his defence. The whole body of the ex-ministers and their adherents, and two of the three parties united in the new administration were openly and avowedly his friends, and took every opportunity of declaring their opinion, that his conduct was not only undeserving of censure, but meriting the warmest thanks of his country. The East India directors were, indeed, decidedly hostile to his system of goverament, to which they imputed all the pecuniary difficulties of the company's situation; but, they were averse to his impeachment; either, because they thought his conduct did not afford grounds for such a procedure against him; or, because they despaired of success in it, and deprecated an attempt, which, if it failed, might raise him again to power. Mr. Fox had withdrawn himself, in a great measure, from the discus. sion of Indian affairs, since the trial of Mr. Hastings; and, though his situation in the house of commons. compelled him to attend, during the present session, to all questions of importance agitated in that assembly, it was obvious that, on the subject of lord Wellesley's impeach ment, he gave up his time and attention to this part of his duty with reluctance, and saw it, with regret, encroach from the individual who prefers them, and from the force of truth. The influence of this last consideration on Mr. Fox's mind appeared from his conduct in lord Melville's trial; for, though he had been active in bringing that noble personage to the bar of the house of lords, and though as one of the managers of the im peachment named by the commons, he attended, in that capacity, in Westminster Hall, on the first day of the trial, he took no part what ever in the subsequent proceedings, though several legal and constitu. tional questions were agitated during the trial, in which his opinion would have had great authority against the defendant. encroach more and more every day on his other avocations, and inter. fere with the discharge of his other He had always expressed, and he continued to express, the most marked and unqualified reprobation of lord Wellesley's sys. tem of war and conquest in India; and he professed, on the part of the government to which he belonged, a determination to pursue, in regard to that country, a totally diferent system. But, in changing the late system of Indian politics, he was averse to any retrospective in. quiry with a view to punishment. It was unnecessary to prosecute such inquiry, after the system complained of had been abandoned, and the persons who had carried it on, Mr. Francis, whose name, through removed from office; and, in general, a long course of years, has been as. be observed, it was inexpedient to sociated with whatever is right or impeach men for errors of system, meritorious in Indian politics, though unless when, in support of it, they he expressed a most decided opinion had been guilty of acts of great de- of lord Wellesley's delinquency, yet inquency. Whether the delinquen- declined, from personal reasons, to cies of lord Wellesley were such have any concern in his impeachas to merit impeachment, was a ment, and declared, that it was his question on which Mr. Fox declared, intention, in future, to withdraw that he had not yet made up his himself generally from the discus mind, but, whenever the subject sion of political questions purely came before him, he should act as and properly Indian, and not inthe case seemed to require. He volving any immediate British inadded, that he would take no part terest. But, notwithstanding this in the previous stages of the inquiry. declaration, he was found at his post He had resolved, after the unsatis. during the remaining part of the sesfactory result of Mr. Hastings' trial, sion, on all questions relating to to have no further concern in In. India, and ever ready to support dian impeachments; and in his pre- Mr. Paull in the prosecution of his sent official situation, he thought it inquiry. would be unbecoming in him to take an active part against a person under accusation. Ministers ought, in general, to abstain from interfering in inquiries of this nature, and leave the task to other members of the house; that no weight might be lent to accusations, except what they derive Mr. George Johnstone, a friend of Mr. Paull, who, before the return of lord Wellesley to England, had expressed himself most violently against that nobleman's conduct in India, took occasion, early in the present session, to inform the house, that he had dissuaded Mr. Pauli II 3 from from this prosecution; and though he still professed to disapprove of lord Wellesley's administration, he was careful to add, that he was far from recommending an inquiry into his conduct, with the view of founding upon it any criminal charge against him. Mr. Paull was, therefore, left during a great part of the present session, without any zealous or steady supporter in parliament except lord Folkstone. Insomuch that, having imprudently brought forward, in the absence of that nobleman, his first charge against lord Wellesley, not only without any documents to support it, but without securing any person to second his motion for taking it into farther consideration; the house had actually to wait in suspense for several minutes, till sir William Geary rose and seconded the motion, declaring at the same time, that he had no decided opinion upon the subject, and that he only seconded the motion, because he thought a question of that importance should not be al. lowed to fall to the ground. But, this defenceless unprotected state, in which Mr. Paul stood for ward, alone and insulated, without assistance or encouragement, as the accuser of a nobleman, whose victorious administration had reflected so much splendor on the British empire in India, was ultimately most favourable to his cause. For, it encouraged the friends and adherents of lord Wellesley to attempt to browbeat and reduce to silence his accuser, in a manner so indecent and outrageous, as to ronse against them a spirit of resistance in the house, which gave to Mr. Paul and his accusation a degree of weight and consideration, which they seemed not, at one time, to have any chance of ever attaining. The per sons, who were thus induced latterly to support Mr. Paul with the greatest warmth and steadiness, were Mr. Windham, Dr. Laurence, lord A. Hamilton, the marquis of Doug-i las, Mr. Martin (of Tewkesbury) and the solicitor general, and many other members lent him occasionally their assistance. As little real progress, however, was made in the prosecution against lord Wellesley, during the present session, though much time was employed in discussions relating to it, we shall give a very short account of the proceedings. Various motions were made by Mr. Paul and others on the one hand, and by the friends of marquis Wellesley on the other, for papers in crimination or exculpation of that nobleman, and all of them were granted, without opposition, by the house; except a paper moved for by lord A. Hamilton (April 21st, 1806), entituled a dispatch approved by the court of directors, dated 3rd of April 1805, to the governor general in council," which after a long debate was refused by the house on a division. This paper had been already produced at the India house, and printed and circu lated. It was not, therefore, wanted for the sake of information, nor was it called for on account of any proceeding then before the house. The noble lord, who moved for it, disclaimed any intention of using it as a ground of charge or point of evidence against lord Wellesley ;. nor could it in justice be used as a ground of crimination against that nobleman; for it merely contained the opinion of the court of direc tors, with respect to his administration, and had not even been transmitted to him in India, having been stopped by the board of con troul troul, who had refused to send it, and had compelled the directors to sign a paper directly the reverse of it in all respects. But though it was admitted to be improper for the accusers of lord Wellesley to stand behind the directors of the East India company, and use the authority of that body as the ground of their charges against him, it was obriously impossible, if the dispatch were laid before the house, that it should not operate to his prejudice; and, therefore, the production of it was objected to by Mr. Fox and the Easter of the rolls, who on this occasion agreed in opinion, as a flagrant art of injustice. It appeared, indeed, from next day's debate, that, had this paper been granted, it would have been used, without scruple, against lord Wellesley, as a foundation for the first article of charge, rashly and inconsiderately brought forward on that day by Mr. Paull, without a tittle of evidence or a single document to support it. This ill-judged precipitate mea. sure, after ten months employed in moving for papers on Oude, Bhurt pore, Surat, Furruckabad and other sabjects connected with his intended impeachment, is a melancholy sample of Mr. Paull's management of his cause throughout. It was on this occasion, that he was saved from the aortification of seeing his motion fall to the ground for want of a seconder, by the interference of sir William Geary. A debate follow. ed on the course to be taken by the house, in the extraordinary situation, in which it was placed, of beng called upon to entertain a criminal charge, without a particle of evi dence in support of it. Mr. Paull at length withdrew his motion for taking the charge into considera. tion: and, next day, (April 23rd), the order for printing it, which had been inadvertently passed, was discharged on the motion of Mr. Sheridan. Various attempts were afterwards made by Mr. Paull, to have this charge printed by order of the house; but, though the principal objection to it was removed by the production of evidence, the friends of lord Wellesley contrived to defeat all his motions for that purpose. This article related chiefly to acts of extravagance and profusion in the expenditure of public money, charged to have been committed by lord Wellesley during his administration of India. The Onde charge, which was next brought forward, was laid on the table of the house of commons on the 28th of May, read and ordered to be printed. This charge recited numberless acts of tyranny, oppression, fraud, hypocrisy and illegal violence practised against the Nabob Vizier of Oude by order of lord Wellesley,in consequence of which that prince was compelled to cede, by treaty, one half of his dominions to the East India company, and to submit his administra. tion of the other half to the controul of their servants. It is remarkable, that immediately after this charge had been read, there was found a member in the house, who gravely rose and urged, that there was no law in India but the sword, and that Indian princes were not entitled to the benefit of those rules of justice, which are binding * Dated at Lucknow, November 10th, 1801. among among European sovereigns. It is but justice to sir Arthur Wellesley to add, that he rejected with dis dain, on the part of his brother, so profligate a ground of detence; and both Mr. Fox and Mr Francis expressed their surprise and indignation, at hearing such unprincipled doctrines advanced. In consequence of a motion of lord Temple, which was intended to bring this charge to a more speedy decision, but which had precisely the opposite effect, the Oude charge was not taken into consideration till the 18th of June; when, after an unsuccessful attempt of Mr. Bankes to dispose of the whole accusation, by referring it to the India tribunal, established by the act of 1784, the house went into a committee, for the examination of evidence on the charge. The exami. nation was resumed on the 19th, 20th, and 23rd of June, and the evidence baving been printed, an attempt was made by the friends of lord Wellesley to bring the house to a final decision upon the charge on the 6th of July. But, this attempt was resisted with great firmness and force of argument, by Mr. Windham, Dr. Laurence and the solicitor general; and Mr. Paull having de. clared, that several important docu. ments were still wanting to enable him to proceed in the case, the mo tion for going into a committee un the charge was at length withdrawn. Next day Mr. Paull presented a supplementary article to the Oude charge, accusing lord Wellesley of various acts of extortion, cruelty and injustice towards the Rajah of Sasnee and other Rajahs and Zemindars in the Dooab,a district form ing part of the dominions of Oude ceded to the company by the treaty of 1801. The unjust and fraudulent means used by lord Wellesley to compel the nabob of Furruckabad to cede the whole of his dominions to the East India company, formed the groundwork of the third article of charge against him. This charge was presented to the house on the 9th of June and ordered to be printed, and taken into consideration on a future day; but no further pro ceedings took place in regard to it during the present session of parlia. ment. Various motions were made during this session, and various discussions arose, with respect to the fipances of the East India Company; but, it is unnecessary for us to give any account of these debates, as all uncertainty on that subject was removed h the appearance of the East India budget, brought forward by lord Morpeth on the 10th of July; for, though a very long and interesting debate followed on the causes of the distressed situation to which the company were reduced, every one admitted that lord Morpeth had given a most fair and perspicuons statement of their affairs. We shall make no comments on the gloomy view which he presented of the company's situation, nor contrast the actual state of their affairs with the flattering pictures and delusive representations, which, for many years before, it seemed to be considered part of the duty of the board of controul, annually to exhibit to the public. It appeared from the statements of lord Morpeth, that, |