y, by the original mover of these
resolutions. The task, he said, would better have become ministers, as
the authors of those extreme resolutions against the governor-general,
and that it would particularly become Dundas, who had now all the powers
and resources necessary for a complete examination, as an influential
member of the board of control. Burke then uttered a terrible philippic
against men whose notions of right and wrong varied according to
circumstances, and depended on their being out of, or in office--men who
could find every thing wrong in India in 1782, when they wanted places,
but who would make no attempt to punish or correct those whom they then
condemned, in 1784, when they had obtained what they wanted. Acting
under their sanction, however, he asserted a claim to their protection,
and after giving a detailed historical account of parliamentary
proceedings with regard to British India, he remarked that there were
three species of inquisition which might be adopted against a state
culprit; the house might order a prosecution by the attorney-general; or
it might proceed by a bill of pains and penalties; or it might act
upon the ancient and constitutional mode of impeachment. As the
attorney-general was evidently unfriendly to the prosecution, and as
he considered that to proceed by a bill of pains and penalties would
be unjust towards the accused, inasmuch as it would compel him to
anticipate his defence, and impose on the house the twofold character of
accuser and judge, he would advise the house to proceed by impeachment,
being careful at the same time to do so with all possible caution and
prudence. The first-step in such a proceeding was, he said, a general
review of the evidence, in order that they might determine whether the
person charged, ought to be impeached or not. To this end he proposed
that the house should resolve itself into a committee, and that such
papers as were necessary for substantiating the guilt of Mr. Hastings,
if he was guilty, should be laid before that committee. Then, he said,
if the charges should appear to be what he believed them to be, charges
of the blackest nature, and supported by competent evidence, the house
might proceed with confidence and dignity to the bar of the lords. Burke
concluded by justifying his motives, in taking on himself the duties
of a public accuser, and by expressing his conviction that Hastings had
been guilty of gross corruption, and that his ad