on produced its abuse. You saw the native government vanish by
degrees, until it was reduced to a situation fit for nothing but to
become a private perquisite, as it has been, to Mr. Hastings, and to be
granted to whom he pleased. The English government succeeded, at the
head of which Mr. Hastings was placed by an act of Parliament, having
before held the office of President of the Council,--the express object
of both these appointments being to redress grievances; and within these
two periods of his power, as President and Governor-General, were those
crimes committed of which he now stands accused. All this history is
merely by way of illustration: his crimination begins from his
nomination to the Presidency; and we are to consider how he comported
himself in that station, and in his office of Governor-General.

The first thing, in considering the merits or demerits of any governor,
is to have some test by which they are to be tried. And here, my Lords,
we conceive, that, when a British governor is sent abroad, he is sent to
pursue the good of the people as much as possible in the spirit of the
laws of this country, which in all respects intend their conservation,
their happiness, and their prosperity. This is the principle upon which
Mr. Hastings was bound to govern, and upon which he is to account for
his conduct here. His rule was, what a British governor, intrusted with
the power of this country, was bound to do or to forbear. If he has
performed and if he has abstained as he ought, dismiss him honorably
acquitted from your bar; otherwise condemn him. He may resort to other
principles and to other maxims; but this country will force him to be
tried by its laws. The law of this country recognizes that well-known
crime called misconduct in office; it is a head of the law of England,
and, so far as inferior courts are competent to try it, may be tried in
them. Here your Lordships' competence is plenary: you are fully
competent both to inquire into and to punish the offence.

And, first, I am to state to your Lordships, by the direction of those
whom I am bound to obey, the principles on which Mr. Hastings declares
he has conducted his government,--principles which he has avowed, first
in several letters written to the East India Company, next in a paper of
defence delivered to the House of Commons explicitly, and more
explicitly in his defence before your Lordships. Nothing in Mr.
Hastings's proceedings is so curious