person so charged support himself under them. Mr. Hastings considered
himself, as he has stated, to be under the necessity of bearing them.
What is that necessity? Guilt. Could he say that Sir John Clavering (for
I say nothing now of Colonel Monson and Mr. Francis, who were joined
with him) was a man weak and contemptible? I believe there are those
among your Lordships who remember that Sir John Clavering was known
before he went abroad, and better known by his conduct after, to be a
man of the most distinguished honor that ever served his Majesty; he
served his Majesty in a military situation for many years, and
afterwards in that high civil situation in India. It is known that
through every step and gradation of a high military service, until he
arrived at the highest of all, there never was the least blot upon him,
or doubt or suspicion of his character; that his temper for the most
part, and his manners, were fully answerable to his virtues, and a noble
ornament to them; that he was one of the best natured, best bred men, as
well as one of the highest principled men to be found in his Majesty's
service; that he had passed the middle time of life, and come to an age
which makes men wise in general; so that he could be warmed by nothing
but that noble indignation at guilt which is the last thing that ever
was or will be extinguished in a virtuous mind. He was a man whose voice
was not to be despised; but if his character had been personally as
contemptible as it was meritorious and honorable in every respect, yet
his situation as a commissioner named by an act of Parliament for the
express purpose of reforming India gave him a weight and consequence
that could not suffer Mr. Hastings, without a general and strong
presumption of his guilt, to acquiesce in such recorded minutes from
him. But if he had been a weak, if he had been an intemperate man, (in
reality he was as cool, steady, temperate, judicious a man as ever was
born,) the Court of Directors, to whom Mr. Hastings was responsible by
every tie and every principle, and was made responsible at last by a
positive act of Parliament obliging him to yield obedience to their
commands as the general rule of his duty,--the Court of Directors, I
say, perfectly approved of every part of General Clavering's, Colonel
Monson's, and Mr. Francis's conduct; they approved of this inquiry which
Mr. Hastings rejected; and they have declared, "that the powers and
instructions vested