fences; and they then prosecuted him for
his conduct in 1780 and 1781.

The general astonishment was the greater because, only twenty-four hours
before, the members on whom the Minister could depend had received the
usual notes from the Treasury, begging them to be in their places and to
vote against Mr. Fox's motion. It was asserted by Mr. Hastings that,
early on the morning of the very day on which the debate took place,
Dundas called on Pitt, woke him, and was closeted with him many hours.
The result of this conference was a determination to give up the late
Governor-General to the vengeance of the Opposition. It was impossible
even for the most powerful minister to carry all his followers with him
in so strange a course. Several persons high in office, the
Attorney-General, Mr. Grenville, and Lord Mulgrave, divided against Mr.
Pitt. But the devoted adherents who stood by the head of the government
without asking questions were sufficiently numerous to turn the scale. A
hundred and nineteen members voted for Mr. Fox's motion; seventy-nine
against it. Dundas silently followed Pitt.

That good and great man, the late William Wilberforce, often related the
events of this remarkable night. He described the amazement of the
House, and the bitter reflections which were muttered against the Prime
Minister by some of the habitual supporters of government. Pitt himself
appeared to feel that his conduct required some explanation. He left the
treasury bench, sat for some time next to Mr. Wilberforce, and very
earnestly declared that he had found it impossible, as a man of
conscience, to stand any longer by Hastings. The business, he said, was
too bad. Mr. Wilberforce, we are bound to add, fully believed that his
friend was sincere, and that the suspicions to which this mysterious
affair gave rise were altogether unfounded.

Those suspicions, indeed, were such as it is painful to mention. The
friends of Hastings, most of whom, it is to be observed, generally
supported the administration, affirmed that the motive of Pitt and
Dundas was jealousy. Hastings was personally a favorite with the King.
He was the idol of the East India Company and of its servants. If he
were absolved by the Commons, seated among the Lords, admitted to the
Board of Control, closely allied with the strong-minded and imperious
Thurlow, was it not almost certain that he would soon draw to himself
the entire management of Eastern affairs? Was it not possibl