CHAP. LXI. 1786. and was supported by Mr. Windham, Mr. Dundas, General Burgoyne, and Mr. Francis himself, the House was inexorable, and the motion was rejected*. To allay those feelings by which Mr. Francis admitted himself to be affected, the other members of the committee wrote him a letter of regret and eulogy, which 18th Dec. was immediately published; but unfortunately, some person, well acquainted with the person, situation, acts, and resources of the honourable gentleman, reprinted it, with remarks well calculated to render the laudatory parts of it doubtfult; and no public expression, beyond the letter thus answered, was proffered for his gratification. To dismiss, for some time at least, the subject of Motion for imParliamentary impeachments, it will be necessary peachment of Sir Elijah briefly to state the proceedings against Sir Elijah Impey. Impey. After some unavoidable delay, notice of the motion, at a stated day, was given by Sir Gilbert 1787. 24th April. Elliot; but, that day being also found inconvenient, he did not produce his motion until the ensuing session. He considered the Supreme Court in India as a law 12th Dec. job, as a colony for the bar in Westminster Hall, by which young adventurers in the profession, as well as in politics, were to carry their talents to the Indian field, and by which, in process of time, that House was to behold a learned as well as a lay squad from Bengal. After many more observations of the same kind, he shortly stated his charges. The first related to Nundcomar; the next was the Patna cause; the third, the unaccountable extension of the jurisdiction of the court; then came the Cossijurah cause; the acceptance of the office of the Sudder Duannee Adaulet, with an enormous salary, in direct disobedience to the act by which he held the place of supreme judge; and the last was founded on the affidavits which he took at Lucknow, in justification of Mr. Hastings's conduct toward the Begums of Oude, which was termed a scandalous prostitution of his high authority. * 122 to 62. It was published by Stockdale, in 1788. CHAP. 1787. Sir Elijah Impey defends himself. April. 1788. Sir Gilbert produced these charges in writing; and they were ordered to be received, read shortly, and printed. Sir Elijah never shewed the least apprehension on the subject; and, when offered to be exempted from examination in Mr. Hastings's case, he declined the privilege, declaring that, as he had no consciousness of guilt, he was free from all impression of fear. At the first opportunity, he petitioned for a hearing, the ex4th February. amination of witnesses, and other business, occupied a long period of the session; but, being at length admitted to the bar of the House, he delivered a long, eloquent, and energetic defence. He shewed that the evidence adduced before a committee of the House, on the subject of Nundcomar, was inapplicable; but he complained of the libels which had been put into circulation on the subject, particularly one which imputed to Lord Mansfield a declaration that the legal murder of Nundcomar showed every person in Bengal what they had to expect. Although these attacks had been daily made for thirteen years, and vehemently renewed since his arrival in England, he had rigorously abstained from all vindicatory publications, however urged and solicited. Far from uttering the sentiments imputed to him, the noble lord, whose name had been so indecently used, had declared that he had never formed any opinion on the subject, that the assertion was an absolute falsehood, and he had authorised the contradiction of it wherever made. He also cited letters of approbation which he had received from Sir William Blackstone, Lord Walsingham, Lord Ashburton, and the Attorney-general, Mr. Wallace. If the points insisted on, with respect to Nundcomar, were true, if, for the purpose of screening the guilty from a just accusation, he had made the law of England the engine and instrument of a confederacy to accomplish the death of the accuser, he was guilty, not of a misdemeanor, but of a murder, of the basest, foulest, and most aggravated nature; and life would then have been the merited forfeit. As to the claim of Nundcomar to especial protection as the accuser of it Mr. Hastings, he declared that the fact was unknown to him and the other judges, except by rumour ; formed no part of the prisoner's defence; evidence might most easily have been given, but it was not; nor, until the end of thirteen years, was it brought forward as a topic of accusation. An adjournment having taken place, he completed his defence on the other charges, supporting his statements by official and public documents*. CHAP. LXI. 1788. The proposed impeachment formed the topic of 28th April. languid discussions on three several days, and, at last, 7th May. it was totally destroyed, by a motion that the House 27th. would, on that day three months, resolve itself into a Motion lost. committee, which passed without a division. This admirable defence was printed separately, as a pamphlet; and it is inserted verbatim in Hansard's Debates, vol. xxvi. p. 1341. CHAP. LXII. CHAPTER THE SIXTY-SECOND. 1786-1787. View of Foreign Affairs-pacific aspect of the Continent.Intrigues of France.-Dutch patriots.- Prussia.-Germany and Russia.-Proceedings in Holland.-Plans of the Patriots their resistance of the Stadtholder-his embarrassed condition-state of the military-restraint of the pressinsults to the Prince-capture of Hattern and Elburg-further proceedings of the patriots.-Applications for foreign aid.-Answer of England-conduct of France-indifference of Germany and Russia.-Death of Frederick the Greatdisposition of his successor.-Insults offered to the Princess of Orange.—Conduct of the King of Prussia-energetic memorial.-Proceedings of the patriots-they are abandoned by France.-March of the Prussians-debates of the patriots--progress of the Prussians.-Stadtholder at the Hague-capture of Amsterdam-re-establishment of order. State of other countries - Germany -Russia. — Journey of the Empress her meeting with the Emperor.-Turkey at war with Russia.-France-her apparent greatness, but real debility-change in the sentiments and manners of the people. Unfavourable impression made by the Emperor-calumnies against the queen-her conduct-affair of the necklace.-Disputes between the King and Parliament of Paris-Compte rendu of M. Necker - Administration of De Calonne-Convocation of the Notables-De Calonne's plan of finance--generally opposed-exertions of Comte De Mirabeau-De Calonne retires-De Brienne succeeds him.-Apathy of the superior classes. If the absence of actual hostilities might be conPacific aspect strued into an assurance of permanent peace, the prospect on the Continent of Europe could not be more of the Continent. cheering than at this period. Slight differences between nations, adjusted without the formality of adverse declarations, without effusion of blood or dissipation of treasure, might be regarded as trivial incidents, interfering but little with the prospects of general welfare; yet there were principles in operation, and machinations in progress, which, at a period not far distant, must be expected to give full scope to those malignant passions which lead to the subversion of systems and engender fierce hostilities. Among the principal of these may be reckoned the prevailing desire to repudiate ancient connexions between nations, to form new combinations for the purpose of aggrandizement, and to renounce those domestic habits and abolish those marks of reverence toward persons and institutions which time had sanctioned, and which long acquiescence had rendered sacred. CHAP. LXII. 1786. France. France, after having assisted in establishing a re- Intrigues of public in America, while, in Holland, she encouraged a domestic party against the Stadtholder, was now intriguing with Russia to prevent a commercial treaty with England, and contriving with the Dutch to acquire power and ascendancy in India. Allusion has already been made to the efforts of a Dutch patriots. faction, who styled themselves Patriots, to degrade and vilify the Stadtholder, to dissolve effectually the ancient connexion of their country with England, and to admit, in its fullest extent, the ascendancy of France. The prominent leaders of this band were the pensionaires Von Berkel, Gyslaer, and Zeebergen; all bred to the profession of the law. Von Berkel obtained compensation for his want of success as an advocate, by a wealthy marriage with a lady of Amsterdam, by which means he became pensionary of that province. Some slight, which he conceived to have been offered to him, implanted in his mind a hatred of the Stadtholder, which time ripened into a deadly and imperishable rancour. Gyslaer enrolled himself as a partizan of Van Berkel in 1779, and, in consequence of his exertions on the question of convoy, was, through his influence, promoted from the office of pensionary of |