No More Learning

The last act of merit that has been insisted upon
by his counsel is the Mahratta peace. They have
stated to you the distresses of the Company to justify the unhandsome and improper means that he took of making this peace. Mr. Hastings himself
has laid hold of the same opportunity of magnifying
the difficulties which, during his government, lhe had
to contend with. Here he displays all his tactics.
He spreads all his sails, and here catches every gale.
He says, " I found all India confederated against
you. I found not the Mahrattas alone; I found war
through a hundred hostile states fulminated against
you; I found the Peshwa, the Nizam, Hyder Ali, the
Rajah of Berar, all combined together for your destruction. I stemmed the torrent: fortitude is my character. I faced and overcame all these difficulties, till I landed your affairs safe on shore, till I
stood the saviour of India. "
My Lords, we of the Hlouse of Commons have be.
fore heard all this; but we cannot forget that we
examined into every part of it, and that we did not
find a single fact stated by him that was not a ground
of censure and reprobation. The House of Commons, in the resolutions to which I have alluded,
have declared, that Mr. Hastings, the first author of
? ? ? ? 382 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
these proceedings, took advantage of an ambiguous
letter of the Court of Directors to break and violate
the most solemn, the most advantageous, and useful
treaty that the Company had ever made in India;
and that this conduct of his produced the strange
and unnatural junction which he says he found
formed against the Company, and with which he
had to combat. I should trouble your Lordships
with but a brief statement of the facts; and if I do
not enter more at large in observing upon them,
it is because I cannot but feel shocked at the indecency and impropriety of your being obliged to hear of that as merit which the House of Commons has
condemned in every part. Your Lordships received
obliquely evidence from the prisoner at your bar
upon this subject; yet, when we came and desired
your full inquiry into it, your Lordships, for wise
and just reasons, I have no doubt, refused our request. I must, however, again protest on the part
of the Commons against your Lordsliips receiving
such evidence at all as relevant to your judgment,
unless the House of Commons is fully heard upon it.
But to proceed. -- The government of Bombay
had offended the Mahratta States by a most violent
and scandalous aggression. They afterwards made
a treaty of peace with them, honorable and advantageous to the Company. This treaty was made by Colonel Upton, and is called the Treaty of Poorunder.
Mr. Hastings broke that treaty, upon his declared
principle, that you are to look in war for the resources of your government. All India was at that time in peace. Hyder Ali did not dare to attack us, because he was afraid that his natural enemies, the Mallrattas, would fall upon him. The Nizam could
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - NINTH DAY. 383
not attack us, because he was also afraid of the Mahrattas. The Mahratta state itself was divided into such discordant branches as to make it impossible
for them to unite in any one object; that commonwealth, which certainly at that time was the terror
of India, was so broken as to render it either totally
ineffective or easy to be resisted. There was not one
government in India that did not look up to Great
Britain as holding the balance of power, and in a
position to control and do justice to every individual
party in it. At that juncture Mr. Hastings deliberately broke the treaty of Poorunder; and afterwards,
by breaking faith with and attacking all the powers,
one after another, he produced that very union which
one would hardly have expected that the incapacity or ill faith of any Governor could have effected. Your Lordships shall hear the best and most incontrovertible evidence both of his incapacity and ill faith, and of the consequences which they produced.
It is the declaration of one of the latest of their allies
concerning all these proceedings. It is contained in
a letter from the Rajah of Berar, directly and strongly inculpating Mr. Hastings, upon facts which lie has never denied and by arguments which he has never
refuted, as being himself the cause of that very
junction of all the powers of India against us.
Letter from Benaram Pundit.
" As the friendship of the English is, at all events,
the first and most necessary consideration, I will
therefore exert myself in establishing peace: for the
power of making peace with all is the best object;
to this all other measures are subservient, and will
certainly be done by them, the English. You write,
? ? ? ? 384 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
that, after having laid the foundation of peace with
the Pundit Purdhaun, it is requisite that some troops
should be sent with General Goddard against IIyder
Naig, and take possession of his country, when all
those engagements and proposals may be assented to.
My reason is confounded in discussing this suggestion, at a time when Hyder Naig is in every respect
in alliance with the Peshwa, and has assisted with
his soul and life to repel the English. For us to
unite our troops with those of the enemy and extirpate him, would not this fix the stamp of infamy upon us forever? Would any prince, for generations to come, ever after assist us, or unite with the Peshwa? Be yourself the judge, and say whether
such a conduct would become a prince or not. Why,
then, do you mention it? why do you write it?
"T The case is as follows. -At first there was the
utmost enmity between Hyder Naig and the Pundit
Purdhaun, and there was the fullest intention of
sending troops into Hyder Naig's country; and after
the conclusion of the war with Bombay and the capture of Ragonaut Row, it was firmly resolved to send troops into that quarter; and a reliance was placed
in the treaty which was entered into by the gentlemen of Bombay before the war. But when Ragonaut again went to them, and General Goddard was ready
to commence hostilities, - when no regard was paid
to the friendly proposals made by us and the Pulldit
Peshwa, - when they desisted from coming to Poonali, agreeable to their promise, and a categorical answer was given to the deputies from Poonah, --
the ministers of Poonall then consulted among themselves, and, having advised with the Nabob Nizam ul Dowlah, they considered that as enemies were ap
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - NINTH DAY. 385
pearing on both sides, and it would be difficult to
cope with both, what was to be done? Peace must
be made with one of them, and war must be carried
on with the other. They wished above all things, in
their hearts, to make peace with the English gentlemen, and to unite with them to punish Hyder Naig;
but these gentlemen had plainly refused to enter into any terms of reconciliation. It was therefore advisable to accommodate matters with Iyder Naig, although he had been long an enemy. What else
could be done? Having nothing left for it, they were
compelled to enter into an union with Hyder. "
My Lords, this declaration, made to Mr. Hastings
himself, was never answered by him. Indeed, answered it could not be; because the thing was manifest, that all the desolation of the Carnatic by Hyder Ali, all these difficulties upon which he has insisted,
the whole of that union by which he was pressed,
and against which, as he says, he bore up with such
fortitude, was his own work, the consequences of his
bad faith, and his not listening to any reasonable
terms of peace.
But, my Lords, see what sort of peace he afterwards made. I could prove, if I were called upon
so to do, from this paper that they have had the
folly and madness to produce to you for other purposes, that he might at any time have made a better
treaty, and have concluded a more secure and advantageous peace, than that which at last lie acceded
to; that the treaty lie made was both disadvantageous
and dishonorable, inasmuch as we gave up every ally
we had, and sacrificed them to the resentment of the
enemy; that Mahdajee Sindia gained by it an empire
VOL. XII. 25
? ? ? ? 386 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
of a magnitude dangerous to our very existence in
India; that this chief was permitted to exterminate
all the many little gallant nations that stood between
us and the Mahrattas, and whose policy led them to
guard against the ambitious designs of that government. Almost all these lesser powers, from Central
India, quite up to the mountains that divide India
from Tartary, almost all these, I say, were exterminated by him, or were brought under a cruel subjection. The peace he made with Mr. Hastings was for the very purpose of doing all this; and Mr. Hastings
enabled him, and gave him the means of effecting it.
Advert next, my Lords, to what he did with other
allies. By the treaty of Poorunder, made by Colonel
Upton, and which he flagitiously broke, we had acquired, what, God knows, we little merited from the
Mahrattas, twelve lacs, (112,0001. ) for the expenses
of the war, - and a country of three lacs of annual
revenue, the province of Baroaclh and the isle of
Salsette, and other small islands convenient for us
upon that coast. This was a great, useful, and momentous accession of territory and of revenue: and
we got it with honor; for not one of our allies were
sacrificed by this treaty. We had even obtained
from the Mahrattas for Ragonaut Row, our support
of whom against that government was a principal
cause of the war, an establishment of a thousand
horse, to be maintained at their expense, and a jaghire for his other expenses of three lacs of rupees
per annum, payable monthly, with leave to reside
within their territories, with no other condition than
that he should not remove from the place fixed for
his residence for the purpose of exciting disturbances
against their government. They also stipulated for
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -NINTH DAY. 387
the pardon of all his adherents except four; and the
only condition they required from us was, that we
should not assist him in case of any future disturbance. But Mr. Hastings, by his treaty, surrendered
that country of three lacs of revenue; he made no
stipulation for the expenses of the war, nor indemnity
for any of the persons whom he had seduced into the
rebellion in favor of Ragonaut Row; he gave them
all up to the vengeance of their governments, without
a stroke of a pen in their favor, to be banished, confiscated, and undone; and as to Ragonaut Row, instead of getting him this honorable and secure retreat, as he was bound to do, this unfortunate man was ordered to retire to his enemy's (Mahdajee Sindia's) country, or otherwise he was not to receive a
shilling for his maintenance.
I will now ask your Lordships, whether any man
but Mr. Hastings would claim a merit with his own
country for having broken the treaty of Poorunder?
Your Lordships know the opinion of the House of
Commons respecting it; his colleagues in Council
had remonstrated with him upon it, and had stated
the mischiefs that would result from it; and Sir
Eyre Coote, the commander of the Company's forces,
writing at the same time from Madras, states, that
he thought it would infallibly bring down upon them
Hyder Ali, who, they had reason to think, was bent
upon the utter destruction of the power of this country in India, and was only waiting for some crisis
in our affairs favorable to his designs. This, my
Lords, is to be one of the set-offs against all the
crimes, against the multiplied frauds, cruelties, and
oppressions, all the corrupt practices, prevarications,
and swindlings, that we have alleged against him.
? ? ? ? 388 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
My Lords, it would be an endless undertaking, and
such as, at this hour of the day, we, as well as your
Lordships, are little fitted to engage in, if I were to
attempt to search into and unveil all the secret motives, or to expose as it deserves the shameless audacity of this man's conduct. None of your Lordships can have observed without astonishment the selection of his merits, as he audaciously calls them,
which has been brought before you. The last of this
selection, in particular, looks as if he meant to revile and spit upon the legislature of his country, because we and you thought it fit and were resolved
to publish to all India that we will not countenance
offensive wars, and that you felt this so strongly as
to pass the first act of a kind that was ever made,
namely, an act to limit the discretionary power of
government in making war solely, - and because you
have done this solely and upon no other account and
for no other reason under heaven than the abuse
which that man at your bar has made of it, and for
which abuse he now presumes to take merit to himself. I will read this part of the act to your Lordships.
[Mr. Burke here read 24th Geo. III. cap. 25, sect. 34. ]
"And whereas to pursue schemes of conquest and
extension of dominion in India are measures repugnant to the wish, the honor, and policy of this nation, be it therefore further enacted by the authority
aforesaid, that it shall not be lawful for the Governor-General and Council of Fort William aforesaid,
without the express command and authority of the
said Court of Directors, or of the Secret Committee
of the said Court of Directors, in any case, (except
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -NINTH DAY. 389
where hostilities have actually been commenced, or
preparations actually made for the commencement
of hostilities, against the British nation in India, or
against some of the princes or states dependent
thereon, or whose territories the said United Company shall be at such time engaged by any subsisting
treaty to defend or guaranty,) either to declare war,
or commence hostilities, or enter into any treaty for
making war, against any of the country princes or
states in India, or any treaty for guarantying the pos
sessions of any country princes or states; and that
in such case it shall not be lawful for the said Governor-General and Council to declare war, or commence hostilities, or enter into treaty for making war, against any other prince or state than such as shall
be actually committing hostilities or making preparations as aforesaid, or to make such treaty for guarantying the possessions of any prince or state, but upon the consideration of such prince or state actually engaging to assist the Company against such
hostilities commenced or preparations made as aforesaid; and in all cases where hostilities shall be commenced or treaty made, the said Governor-General and Council shall, by the most expeditious means they
can devise, communicate the same unto the said
Court of Directors, together with a full state of
the information and intelligence upon which they
shall have commenced such hostilities or made such
treaties, and their motives and reasons for the same
at large. "
It is the first act of the kind that ever was made
in this kingdom, the first statute, I believe, that ever
was made by the legislature of any nation, upon the
? ? ? ? 390 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
subject; and it was made solely upon the resolutions
to which we had come against the violent, intemperate, unjust, and perfidious acts of this man at your
Lordships' bar, and which acts are now produced before your Lordships as merits.
To show further to your Lordships how necessary
this act was, here is a part of his own correspondence,
the last thing I shall beg to read to your Lordships,
and upon which I shall make no other comment than
that you will learn from it how well British faith was
kept by this man, and that it was the violation of
British faith which prevented our having the most
advantageous peace, and brought on all the calamities of war. It is part of a letter from the minister
of the. Rajah of Berar, a man called Benaram Pundit,
with whom Mr. Hastings was at the time treating for
a peace; and he tells him why he might have had
peace at that time, and why lie had it not, --and
that the cause of it was his own ridiculous and even
buffoonish perfidiousness, which exposed him to the
ridicule of all the princes of India, and with him the
whole British nation.
"But afterwards reflecting that it was not advisable for me to be in such haste before I had fuilly understood all the contents of the papers, I opened them in the presence of the Maha Rajah, when all the
kharetas, letters, copies, and treaties were perused
with the greatest attention and care. First, they convinced us of your great truth and sincerity, and that
you never, from the beginning to this time, were
inclined to the present disputes and hostilities; and
next, that you have not included in the articles of
the treaty any of your wishes or inclinations; and in
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - NINTH DAY. 391
short, the garden of the treaty appeared to us, in
all its parts, green and flourishing: but though the
fruit of it was excellent, yet they appeared different
from those of Colonel Upton's treaty, (the particulars
of which I have frequently written to you,) and, upon
tasting them, proved to be bitter and very different,
when compared to the former articles. How can any
of the old and established obligations be omitted,
and new matters agreed to, when it is plain that
they will produce losses and damages? Some points
which you have mentioned, under the plea of the faith
and observance of treaties, are of such a nature that
the Poonah ministers can never assent to them. In all
engagements and important transactions, in which the
words but, and although, and besides, and whereas,
and uwhy, and other such words of doubt, are introduced, it gives an opening to disputes and misunderstandings. A treaty is meant for the entire removal of all differences, not for increase of them. My departure to Poonah has therefore been delayed. "
My Lords, consider to what ironies and insults
this nation was exposed, and how necessary it was
for us to originate that bill which your Lordships
passed into an act of Parliament, with his Majesty's
assent. The words but, although, besides, whereas, and
why, and such like, are introduced to give -an opening, and so on. Then he desires him to send another treaty, fit for him to sign.
"I have therefore kept the treaty with the greatest care and caution in my possession, and, having
taken a copy of it, I have added to each article another, which appeared to me proper and advisable,
and without any loss or disadvantage to the English,
? ? ? ? 392 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
or anything more in favor of the Pundit Purdhaun
than what was contained in the former treaties. This
I have sent to you, and hope that you will prepare
and send a treaty conformable to that, without any besides, or if, or why, or but, and whereas, that, as soon as it arrives, I may depart for Poonah, and, having united with me Row Mahdajee Sindia, and having brought
over the Nabob Nizam ul Dowlah to this business, I
may settle and adjust all matters which are in this
bad situation. As soon as I have received my dismission from thence, I would set off for Calcutta, and represent to you everything which for a long while
I have had on my mind, and by this transaction erect
to the view of all the world the standard of the greatness and goodness of the English and of my master,
and extinguish the flames of war with the waters of
friendship. The compassing all these advantages and
happy prospects depends entirely upon your will and
consent; and the power of bringing them to an issue
is in your hands alone. "
My Lords, you may here see the necessity there
was for passing the act of Parliament which I have
just read to you, in order to prevent in future the
recurrence of that want of faith of which Mr. Hastings had been so notoriously guilty, and by which he
had not only united all India against us, and had
hindered us from making, for a long time, any peace
at all, but had exposed the British character to the
irony, scorn, derision, and insult of the whole people
of that vast continent.
My Lords, in the progress of this impeachment,
you have heard our charges; you have heard the
prisoner's plea of merits; you have heard our obser
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- NINTH DAY. 393
vations on them. In the progress of this impeachnient, you have seen the condition in which Mr. Hastings received Benares; you have seen the condition in which Mr. Hastings received the country of the Rohillas; you have seen the condition in which
he received the country of Oude; you have seen the
condition in which he received the provinces of
Bengal; you have seen the condition of the country
when the native government was succeeded by that
of Mr. Hastings; you have seen the happiness and
prosperity of all its inhabitants, from those of the
highest to those of the lowest rank. My Lords, you
have seen the very reverse of all this under the government of Mr. Hastings, -- the country itself, all its beauty and glory, ending in a jungle for wild beasts.
You have seen flourishing families reduced to implore
that pity which the poorest man and the meanest
situation might very well call for. You have seen
whole nations in the mass reduced to a condition of
the same distress. These things in his government
at home. Abroad, scorn, contempt, and derision cast
upon and covering the British name, war stirred up,
and dishonorable treaties of peace made, by the total
prostitution of British faith. Now take, my Lords,
together, all the multiplied delinquencies which we
have proved, from the highest degree of tyranny to
the lowest degree of sharping and cheating, and then
judge, mny Lords, whether the House of Commons
could rest for one moment, without bringing these
matters, which have baffled all legislation at various times, before you, to try at last what judgment will do. Judgment is what gives force, effect, and
vigor to laws; laws without judgment are contemptible and ridiculous; we had better have no laws than
? ? ? ? 394 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
laws not enforced by judgments and suitable penalties upon delinquents. Revert, my Lords,. to all the sentences which have heretofore been passed by this
high court; look at the sentence passed upon Lord
Bacon, look at the sentence passed upon Lord
Macclesfield; and then compare the sentences which
your ancestors have given with the delinquencies
which were then before them, and you have the measure to be taken in your sentence upon the delinquent now before you. Your sentence, I say, will be measured according to that rule which ought to direct the judgment of all courts in like cases, lessening it for
a lesser offence, and aggravating it for a greater, until
the measure of justice is completely full.
My Lords, I have done; the part of the Commons
is concluded. With a trembling solicitude we consign
this product of our long, long labors to your charge.
Take it! - take it! It is a sacred trust. Never before was a cause of such magnitude submitted to any
human tribunal.
My Lords, at this awful close, in the name of the
Commons, and surrounded by them, I attest the retiring, I attest the advancing generations, between which, as a link in the great chain of eternal order,
we stand.
We call this nation, we call the world to
witness, that the Commons have shrunk from no
labor, that we have been guilty of no prevarication,
that we have made no compromise with crime, that
we have not feared any odium whatsoever, in the long
warfare which we have carried on with the crimes,
with the vices, with the exorbitant wealth, with the
enormous and overpowering influence of Eastern
corruption. This war, my Lords, we have waged for
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -NINTH DAY. 395
twenty-two years, and the conflict has been fought
at your Lordships' bar for the last seven years. My
Lords, twenty-two years is a great space in the scale
of the life of man; it is no inconsiderable space in
the history of a great nation. A business which has
so long occupied the councils and the tribunals of
Great Britain cannot possibly be huddled over in the
course of vulgar, trite, and transitory events. Nothing
but some of those great revolutions that break the
traditionary chain of human memory, and alter the
very face of Nature itself, call possibly obscure it.
My Lords, we are all elevated to a degree of importance by it; the meanest of us will, by means of it, more or less become the concern of posterity, - if we
are yet to hope for such a thing, in the present state
of the world, as a recording, retrospective, civilized
posterity: but this is in the hands of the great
Disposer of events; it is not ours to settle how it shall
be.
My Lords, your House yet stands, -it stands as
a great edifice; but let me say, that it stands in the
midst of ruins, -- in the midst of the ruins that have
been made by the greatest moral earthquake that ever convulsed and shattered this globe of ours. My Lords, it has pleased Providence to place us in such
a state that we appear every moment to be upon the
verge of some great mutations. There is one thing,
and one thing only, which defies all mutation, - that
which existed before the world, and will survive the
fabric of the world itself: I mean justice, --that
justice which, emanating from the Divinity, has a
place in the breast of every one of us, given us for
our guide with regard to ourselves and with regard
to others, and which will stand, after this globe is
? ? ? ? 396 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
burned to ashes, our advocate or our accuser before
the great Judge, when He comes to call upon us for
the tenor of a well-spent life.
My Lords, the Commons will share in every fate
with your Lordships; there is nothing sinister which
can happen to you, in which we shall not be involved:
and if it should so happen that we shall be subjected to some of those frightful clhanges which we have seen, --if it should happen that your Lordships,
stripped of all the decorous distinctions of human
society, should, by hands at once base and cruel, be
led to those scaffolds and machines of murder upon
which great kings and glorious queens have shed their
blood, amidst the prelates, amidst the nobles, amidst
the magistrates who supported their thrones, may you
in those moments feel that consolation which I am
persuaded they felt in the critical moments of their
dreadful agony!
My Lords, there is a consolation, and a great
consolation it is, which often happens to oppressed
virtue and fallen dignity. It often happens that the
very oppressors and persecutors themselves are forced
to bear testimony in its favor. I do not like to go for
instances a great way back into antiquity. I know
very well that length of time operates so as to give an
air of the fabulous to remote events, which lessens
the interest and weakens the application of examples.
I wish to come nearer to the present time. Your
Lordships know and have heard (for which of us has
not known and heard? ) of the Parliament of Paris.
The Parliament of Paris had an origin very, very
similar to that of the great court before which I
stand; the Parliament of Paris continued to have a
great resemblance to it in its constitution, even to its
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. NINTH DAY. 397
fall: the Parliament of Parls, my Lords, WAS; it is
gone! It has passed away; it has vanished like a
dream! It fell, pierced by the sword of the Comte
de Mirabeau. Anid yet I will say, that that man, at
the time of his inflicting the death-wound of that
Parliament, produced at once the shortest and the
grandest funeral oration that ever was or could be
made upon the departure of a great court of magistracy. Though lie had himself smarted under its
lash, as every one knows who knows his history, (and
he was elevated to dreadful notoriety in history,) yet,
when he pronounced the death sentence upon that
Parliament, and inflicted the mortal wound, he
declared that his motives for doing it were merely
political, and that their hands were as pure as those
of justice itself, which they administered. A great
and glorious exit, my Lords, of a great and glorious
body! And never was a eulogy pronounced upon a
body more deserved. They were persons, in nobility
of rank, in amplitude of fortune, in weight of authority, in depth of learning, inferior to few of those that hear me. My Lords, it was but the other day that
they submitted their necks to the axe; but their
honor was unwounded. Their enemies, the persons
who sentenced them to death, were lawyers full of
subtlety, they were enemies full of malice; yet
lawyers full of subtlety, and enemies full of malice,
as they were, they did not dare to reproach them with
having supported the wealthy, the great, and powerful, and of having oppressed the weak and feeble, in any of their judgments, or of having perverted justice,
in any one instance whatever, through favor, through
interest, or cabal.
My Lords, if you must fall, may you so fall! But
? ? ? ? 398 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
if you stand, -and stand I trust you will, together
with the fortune of this ancient monarchy, together with the ancient laws and liberties of this great and illustrious kingdom, - may you stand as unimpeached in honor as in power! May you stand, not as a substitute for virtue, but as an ornament of virtue, as a security for virtue! May you stand long, and long stand,the terror of tyrants! May you stand the
refuge of afflicted nations! May you stand a sacred temple, for the perpetual residence of an inviolable justice!
? ? ? ? GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS, AND
INDEX.
? ? ? ? GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
VOL. 1.
PAGE
Advertisement to the Reader, Prefixed to the First Octavo Edition v Advertisement to the Second,Octavo Edition. . vii
A Vindication of Natural Society: or, A View of the Miseries and
Evils arising to Mankind from every Species of Artificial Society 1
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime
and Beautiful; with an Introductory Discourse concerning Taste 67
A Short Account of a late Short Administration. 263
Observations on a late Publication, intituled, "The Present State of
the Nation". . . 269
Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. . . 433
VOL. II.
Speech on American Taxation, April 19, 1774. . 1
Speeches on Arrival at Bristol and at the Conclusion of the Poll,
October 13 and November 3, 1774 81
Speech on moving Resolutions for Conciliation with America, March
22, 1775. 99
Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, on the Affairs of America, April 3,
1777. . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Two Letters to Gentlemen of Bristol, on the Bills depending in Parliament relative to the Trade of Ireland, April 23 and May 2, 1778. . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Speech on presenting to the House of Commons a Plan for the Better
Security of the Independence of Parliament, and the Economical Reformation of the Civil and other Establishments, February 11, 1780. . . . . . . . . . . 265
Speech at Bristol previous to the Election, September 6, 1780 365
Speech at Bristol on declining the Poll, September 9, 1780. 425
Speech on Mr. Fox's East India Bill, December 1, 1783. 431
A Representation to his Majesty, moved in the House of Commons,
June 14, 1784. . 537
VOL. XII. 26
? ? ? ? 402 GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
VOL. III.
Speech on the Nabob of Arcot's Debts, February 28, 1785; with an
Appendix.
Substance of Speech on the Army Estimates, February 9, 1790. 211
Reflections on the Revolution in France. . . 231
VOL. IV.
Letter to a Member of the National Assembly, in Answer to some
Objections to his Book on French Affairs. . . 1
Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs.
Letter to a Peer of Ireland on the Penal Laws against Irish Catholics 217
Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, on the Subject of the Roman
Catholics of Ireland. 241
Hints for a Memorial to be delivered to Monsieur de M. M. 307
Thoughts on French Affairs. . 313
Heads for Consideration on the Present State of Affairs. 379
Remarks on the Policy of the Allies with respect to France: with
an Appendix. 403
VOL. V.
Observations on the Conduct of the Minority, particularly in the
last Session of Parliament, 1793. . . . . . . 1
Preface to the Address of M. Brissot to his Constituents: with an
Appendix. 65
Letter to William Elliot, Esq. , occasioned by a Speech made in the
House of Lords by the **** of ~**~*~, in the Debate concerning Lord Fitzwilliam, 1795. 107 Thoughts and Details on Scarcity. 131
Letter to a Noble Lord on the Attacks made upon Mr. Burke and his
Pension, in the House of Lords, by the Duke of Bedford and
the Earl of Lauderdale, 1796. 171
Three Letters to a Member of Parliament on the Proposals for Peace
with the Regicide Directory of France.
Letter I. On the Overtures of Peace. 233
Letter II. On the Genius and Character of the French Revolution as it regards other Nations. . . . . 342
Letter III. On the Rupture of the Negotiation; the Terms of
Peace proposed; and the Resources of the Country for
the Continuance of the War. . . . . 384
57
? ? ? ? GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 403
VOL. VI.
Preface to the Second Posthumous Volume, in a Letter to the Right
Hon. William Elliot.
Fourth Letter on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France: with the Preliminary Correspondence. . 1 Letter to the Empress of Russia, November 1, 1791. . 113
Letter to Sir Charles Bingham, Bart. , on the Irish Absentee Tax,.
October 30, 1773. 121
Letter to the Hon. Charles James Fox, on the American War, October 8, 1777. . . 135
Letter to the Marquis of Rockingham, with Addresses to the King,
and the British Colonists in North America, in Relation to the
Measures of Government in the American Contest, and a Proposed Secession of the OppoSition from Parliament, January, 1777. .