TRIAL OF HASTINGS. 283 



half a million sterling ; which, however, did not amount to 

 the sum expected. 



Mr. Hastings soon after returned to Calcutta, and in Feb- 

 ruary, 1785, embarked for England, after an administration 

 of thirteen years. During that period the revenue had 

 been somewhat increased ; but the debt had been aug 

 mented in a greater proportion. This, however, had re- 

 sulted from the wars in which the company were involved, 

 particularly that with Hyder, to which the governor-general 

 could scarcely be considered a party. On arriving in Eng- 

 land he found a violent clamour against him. Mr. Francis, 

 who in India was his constant and unyielding opponent, 

 had reached Britain before him, and communicated the 

 most unfavourable impressions. The cause was embraced 

 with enthusiastic zeal by Burke, perhaps the greatest orator 

 of the day. He commenced a series of motions, impeach- 

 ing the conduct of Hastings, and was powerfully seconded 

 by Sheridan ; while Pitt, who at first successfully turned 

 them aside, at length gave his entire concurrence. The 

 House then determined to present to the lords a bill 

 of impeachment against the late Governor of India — a 

 measure which excited the deepest interest throughout the 

 nation. This celebrated trial commenced on the 13th Feb- 

 ruary, 1788, before a numerous auditory, which included a 

 great part of the royal family. Burke opened the charge 

 by a speech that lasted four days, in which he represented 

 the conduct of Mr. Hastings as a compound of treachery 

 and cruelty, disgraceful to the British name, and almost 

 without a parallel in the annals of history. The numerous 

 charges, however, upon which the impeachment was founded, 

 the complexity of the evidence, and the remote quarter 

 whence witnesses were to be brought, protracted the trial 

 to an extraordinary length. Seven years rolled on, during 

 which the public mind underwent a remarkable change. 

 The warmth of feeling against the real or supposed enor- 

 mities of the accused gradually subsided, and no small pity 

 was felt for an individual so eminent, who, with nothing 

 yet proved against him, had been doomed not only to endure 

 a heavy load of reproach, but to pass through a life of im- 

 peachment. If he had not been cleared of blame, it was 

 evident that the magnitude of his offences had been consider- 

 ably exaggerated. The interest taken in the transaction 



