Page:Warren Hastings (Trotter).djvu/209

Rh just returned from India.' In the following February he carried out his threat by moving for copies of various papers bearing on the case in hand. In spite of rebuffs from the Ministry, he presented in April a list of the charges which, with Francis' help, he had already framed against the Indian Verres, the modern Nero steeped in the blood of a helpless nation. A long answer in defence, hastily written at five days' notice, and read out in part by Hastings himself before the Commons, was heard with a deference which its author mistook for approval. 'It instantly turned all minds to my own way,' he wrote to a friend in India.

From this delusion he was awakened in June, when Burke entered on his first charge — the hiring out of British soldiers 'for the purpose of extirpating the innocent and helpless people' of Kohilkhand. On this charge Burke and his friends were decisively beaten. On the 13th Fox opened the charge of wanton cruelty and gross extortion practised by Hastings on the Rajah of Benares. Pitt's speech on this occasion took both parties by surprise. After a long and able defence of Hastings' conduct on the main points at issue, he declared his intention to vote for the impeachment, because Mr. Hastings had clearly 'intended to punish Chait Singh with too much severity.' The most probable reason for so sudden a change of front was political expediency alone. Hastings was the Jonah whose presence