; (2) 'that to appropriate acquisitions so made
to the private emoluments of persons entrusted with any civil or
military power {204}of the State is illegal'; (3) 'that very great
sums of money, and other valuable property, had been acquired in
Bengal from princes and others of that country by persons entrusted
with the civil and military powers of the State by means of such
powers; which sums of money and valuable property have been
appropriated to the private use of such persons.'

These resolutions named nobody. But in the speech in which they were
introduced Burgoyne took care that there should be no doubt as to the
person against whom they were directed. He dwelt, with a bitterness
not to be surpassed, on all the delinquencies, real and imaginary, of
the conqueror of Bengal. He traced all the misfortunes which had
subsequently happened to the Company to the treasonable compact which
had dethroned Siraj-ud-daula and placed Mir Jafar on his seat, and
denounced the conduct of the authors of that transaction as 'black
perfidy.' He denounced, also, in terms equally severe, the treatment
of Aminchand; the forging of the name of Admiral Watson; the
agreement, which, he said, had extorted from Mir Jafar enormous sums,
under the guise of presents, to the leading servants of the Company
in Bengal. On the second administration of Clive, which was really a
long struggle against the corruption by which he was surrounded,
Burgoyne railed as bitterly and as unsparingly. Nor was he content
with merely railing. Before he sat down he declared that if the House
should pass his resolutions he would not stop there, but would
proceed to follow them up with others, his {205}object being to
compel those who had acquired large sums of money in the manner he
had denounced to make a full and complete restitution.

The Solicitor-General, Wedderburn, conducted the defence for Clive,
and it was noticeable that the party styled 'the King's Friends,'
amongst many others, gave him their support. The Attorney-General,
Thurlow, supported Burgoyne, and the Prime Minister, Lord North,
voted with him. The voting on these resolutions did not, however,
indicate the real sense of the House, for many of those who supported
them thought it would be better for the cause of Clive that the
further resolutions threatened by Burgoyne should be proceeded with
in order that a decisive vote should be taken on a motion implicating
Clive by name rather than on reso