on against him by
our Board of Trade_, he is, during such prosecution at least, an
improper person to hold a seat _at that board_; and therefore we direct
that he be suspended from the Company's service until our further
pleasure concerning him be known." The principle laid down in this
instruction, even before their own opinion concerning Mr. Barton's case
was declared, and merely on the prosecution of others, serves to render
their conduct not very accountable in the case of Mr. Barwell. Mr.
Barton was in a subordinate situation, and his remaining or not
remaining in it was of little or no moment to the prosecution. Mr.
Barton was but one of seven; whereas Mr. Barwell was one of four, and,
with the Governor-General, was in effect the Supreme Council.

In the present state of power and patronage in India, and during the
relations which are permitted to subsist between the judges, the
prosecuting officers, and the Council-General, your Committee is very
doubtful whether the mode of prosecuting the highest members in the
Bengal government, before a court at Calcutta, could have been almost in
any case advisable.

It is possible that particular persons, in high judicial and political
situations, may, by force of an unusual strain of virtue, be placed far
above the influence of those circumstances which in ordinary cases are
known to make an impression on the human mind. But your Committee,
sensible that laws and public proceedings ought to be made for general
situations, and not for personal dispositions, are not inclined to have
any confidence in the effect of criminal proceedings, where no means are
provided for preventing a mutual connection, by dependencies, agencies,
and employments, between the parties who are to prosecute and to judge
and those who are to be prosecuted and to be tried.

Your Committee, in a former Report, have stated the consequences which
they apprehended from the dependency of the judges on the
Governor-General and Council of Bengal; and the House has entered into
their ideas upon this subject. Since that time it appears that Sir
Elijah Impey has accepted of the guardianship of Mr. Barwell's children,
and was the trustee for his affairs. There is no law to prevent this
sort of connection, and it is possible that it might not at all affect
the mind of that judge, or (upon his account) indirectly influence the
conduct of his brethren; but it must forcibly affect the minds of those
who have matt