he would bring forward a motion for an address to the king, praying him to take the situation of the prince into confideration, and to grant him fuch relief as he in his wifdom should think fit, and pledging the house to make good the fame. This gave rife to an interesting converfation; and Mr. Newnham was by the minister and many other members of the house, earnestly entreated to withdraw his motion, as fertile of inconvenience and mifchief.

Mr. Pitt faid, "that by the perfeverance of Mr. Newnham he should be driven to the disclosure of circumftances which he should otherwife have thought it his duty to conceal." And Mr. Rolle, member for Devonshire, declared, "that the investigation of this question involved in it circumstances which tended immediately to affect the conftitution in church and ftate."

Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, and other gentlemen in the confidence of the prince, declared that " there was nothing which the prince of Wales less feared, than a full and impartial investigation of his conduct; and nothing that his royal highness would more deprecate, than a studied ambiguity or affected tenderness, on the pretence of refpect or indulgence." Mr. Rolle was particularly called upon, though in vain, to explain the extraordinary language he had used.

The fubject being in a few days refumed, Mr. Fox again called the attention of the house to the declaration of Mr. Rolle. "To what that declaration alluded (Mr. Fox faid) it was impoffible to afcertain, till the perfon who made it thought proper to explain his meaning: but he supposed it must refer to that bafe and malicious calumny which had been propagated without doors by the enemies of the prince, with a view to depreciate his character, and injure him in the esteem of his country." Mr. Fox further declared "that the prince had authorised him to affert, that, as a peer of parliament, he was ready in the other houfe

house to submit to any the most pointed questions that could be put to him upon the subject, or to afford the king or his ministers the fullest assurances of the utter falfehood of the fact in question."

Mr. Rolle now thought proper to acknowledge, that the subject upon which Mr. Fox had spoken, was the matter to which he had alluded as affecting both church and state. He said " that the reports relative to this transaction had made a deep impreffion upon the minds of all men who loved and venerated the constitution. He knew that this thing could not have been accomplished under the formal fanction of law; but if it existed as a fact, it might be productive of the most alarming confequences, and ought to be fatisfactorily cleared up."

Mr. Fox replied, "that he did not deny the calumny in question merely with regard to the effect of certain existing laws, but he denied it in toto, in fact as well as in law. The fact not only could never have happened legally, but never did happen in any way, and had from the beginning been a vile and malignant falsehood."

Mr. Rolle rose again, and asked, "whether in what he now afferted Mr. Fox spoke from direct authority?" Mr. Fox faid he had spoken from direct authority.

In confequence of these explicit and authoritative afseverations, Mr. Rolle was loudly called upon to express his satisfaction. But this he obstinately declined, saying only "that the house would judge for themselves of what had passed." On this Mr. Sheridan was provoked to declare,

that if Mr. Rolle persisted in his refusal, or otherwise to put the matter into such a state of enquiry as should fatisfy him, the house ought to come to a refolution, 'that it was feditious and difloyal to propagate reports injurious to the character of the prince."

Mr. Pitt now properly interpofed, and protested against so flagrant an attack on the freedom of speech and deliberation in that house. And it must be confeffed that Mr." Rolle

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Rolle was so far justified as the voice of the public could justify him, in retaining his doubts; for a general and firm perfuafion still prevailed of a fecret marriage between the prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert: though no one presumed to call in question the honor of Mr. Fox in the declarations made by him in the prince's name, for which he undoubtedly had, or thought he had, sufficient authority, and which operated to the perfect apparent conviction of the house of commons; though, to complete the mystery and perplexity of the business, it was subsequently reported and believed that a temporary coolness at least had taken place between the prince and Mr. Fox from the æra of this debate, and as the consequence of that warmth of indignation which carried Mr. Fox inadvertently beyond the strict limits of his commiffion.

In this stage of the business an interview, at the defire of the king, took place between the prince of Wales and Mr. Pitt, at Carlton House; and the prince was informed, " that if the intended motion were withdrawn, every thing might be settled to his royal highness's fatisfaction." This being acceded to, a message was delivered by the minifter from the king to the house, stating his majesty's great concern, " that from the accounts of the prince of Wales it had appeared that he had incurred a debt to a large amount, which, painful as it was to him to propose any addition to the burdens of his people, he was induced by his paternal affection to the prince, to defire the afsistance of parliament to discharge on the well-grounded expectation, nevertheless, of the prince's avoiding to contract any fimilar debt in future; with a view to which, the king had directed a fum of ten thousand pounds to be paid out of the civil list, in addition to his former allowance."

On the very next day after the accounts referred to in the royal message were laid before the house, and of which the dignified generofity of the house suffered not the inspection, spection, an address was voted to the king, to request him to direct the sum of one hundred and fixty-one thoufand pounds to be paid out of the civil lift for the full difcharge of the debts of the prince of Wales, and the farther fum of twenty thousand pounds to complete the repairs of Carlton House.

It may be remarked, in dismissing this subject, that the sum of fifty thousand pounds had been already actually expended on Carlton House, so that, if the prince had enjoyed a revenue equal to that of the late king when prince of Wales, there would have accrued in the four years elapfed fince his majority a very confiderable saving, notwithstanding that extraordinary expence; and thus the complaints of extravagance do not appear to rest upon a very folid foundation.

The fubject of Mr. Hastings's impeachment had been refumed early in the present session, and had occupied a large proportion of it. The primary charge respecting the Rohilla war, brought forward by Mr. Burke towards the conclusion of the feffion of 1786, had made a deep 'impression upon the house: and although Mr. Haftings had been acquitted of the charge, it was upon grounds on which it was impoffible to reft his future defence.

The conduct of Mr. Pitt had been hitherto indecifive and mysterious; but the part taken by Mr. Jenkinson, and the party of which he was confidered as the head, left no room for doubt as to the fecret inclination of the court: and although Mr. Pitt, on the Benares charge, stated by Mr. Fox, had voted against Mr. Hastings, he expressly declared that he did not, upon that account, confider himself as committed to a final vote of impeachment. The grand question therefore still remained doubtful, when on the 7th of February 1787. Mr. Sheridan opened the third charge respecting the Begum princesses of Oude, with an eloquence and energy which were perhaps never furpaffed passed, and which, in their consequences, proved entirely decisive.

The substance of this, as of the other principal charges, has already been recorded in the regular narration of India transactions. A flight extract or two from Mr. Sheridan's speech may serve to excite a faint idea of the transcendent ability with which this charge was enforced :-

Mr. Sheridan faid, " that the conduct of Mr. Hastings refpecting the nabob and begums of Oude comprehended in it every species of human offence. He had been guilty of rapacity at once violent and infatiable, of treachery cool and premeditated, of oppreffion unprovoked, of barbarity wanton and unmanly. So long since as the year 1775 the begum princess, widow of Sujah ul Dowla, had written to Mr. Hastings in the following moving terms;

" if it is your pleasure that the mother of the late nabob, that myself, his other women, and his infant children should be reduced to a state of dishonor and distress, we must submit. But if, on the contrary, you call to mind the friendship of the late blessed nabob, you will exert yourself effectually in favor of us who are helpless." Inflamed by disappointment at Benares, he hastened to the fortress of Chunar, to put in execution the atrocious design of inftigating the nabob, son of this princess, to parricide and plunder. No sooner had Mr. Hastings determined to invade the substance of justice, than he refolved to avail himself of her judicial forms, and dispatched a messenger for the chief justice of India to assist him in perpetrating the violence he had meditated. Without a moment's pause, or the shadow of process instituted, sentence was pronounced. And thus, at the fame time that the sword of government was converted to an assassin's dagger, the pure ermine of justice was stained and foiled with the basest contamination. It was clear to demonstration that the begums were not concerned in the infurTection of Benares. No, their treasures were their treason.

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