§ Mr. Paullmoved the order of the day for the house resolving itself into a committee for the further consideration of the Oude Charge against marquis Wellesley.
Lord Folkestone ,before the house should resolve itself into a committee, wished to call the consideration of the house to a subject which strongly affected his own mind. He thought, that from the great extent of the evidence on both sides, upon those several charges, it would be utterly impossible for members to have sufficiently considered the nature a that evidence, to enable them to come to a deliberate decision upon those charges in the present session. He was of opinion, therefore, that the best way to proceed would be to have the evidence fully gone through in the present session, and that all the documents adduced on both sides should be printed for the use of the members, who, in the course of the recess, would have an opportunity of considering and weighing the testimony maturely, and -might come the better prepared, on the meeting of the ensuing session, to give a clear, deliberate, and decided vote on the subject. The hon. gent. who brought forward the charge would be greatly injured by a premature decision of the case. The noble lord would only have the disagreeable feeling of a charge having been made against him which had not been decided, a situation to which all persons in high situations must be aware that they were exposed. But he could not see what injury he could thereby sustain. Every person who read the one part of the evidence would have the curiosity to read the other also; and so no more injury would really be sustained than where the public, even after a decision, were entitled to read the evidence on both sides, and to form their own conclusions.
§ Mr. Paullsaid, that it would be highly conducive to his own ease, quiet and convenience, that the present charge should be determined during the present session. He, however, declared that he conceived himself as having come under no pledge to conclude the charge during the present session, if the evidence should not have been completely and fully gone through. He was conscious that he had proceeded with a de- 784 gree of rapidity unexampled in the annals of parliament, of course it could not be imputed to him as blame if the noble marquis found himself placed in an unpleasant situation. He confessed that one of the charges was of a very serious nature, being no less than that of murder. He held in his hand however, a copy of one of the charges against Mr. Hastings, containing an unqualified allegation of a foul and atrocious murder against several gentlemen, and among others against Mr. Hastings. Yet that charge was allowed to lie on the table two years before it was gone into. There all the talents, probably great part of the integrity of the country, were friendly to and carried on the prosecution. Here, though he acknowledged, and should recollect with gratitude to the latest moment of his life, the assistance and countenance he had received from the noble lord (Folkestone) and other members of that house, the load of preparing the charges. and of maturing the evidence in support of them, had, in a great measure, if not altogether, devolved on him. If he had to receive blame on any account, it was for having given advantages against himself. It was not to him but to the noble lord near him (lord Temple) that the delay was imputable, of not having brought the present charge forward upon the 10th instead of the 18th inst. and when the noble lord had mentioned his own intention to bring it forward on the 18th, with a view, as he understood him, to a final decision on that day, feeling, as he did, that such a decision would be impossible on a fair consideration of the whole body of evidence he had to produce, he had declared that he would take no part in the proceeding of the noble lord, and that he never would, until the whole of the documents for which he moved upon each particular charge were laid upon the table, move one inch to the right or left, slower or quicker than suited the perfect convenience of his purpose. But as the consideration of a charge so very important, in houses so very thinly attended, was utterly inconsistent with any possibility of due deliberation, he should probably feel it to be his duty, late as it was in the session, to move for a call of the house, in order to enforce an attendance, as consistent with the decorum of parliamentary proceeding, as with the essence of parliamentary justice. The three charges he had brought forward were undoubtedly charges of very great importance; but there was a fourth charge, not yet brought forward, still more important, and which he could not well bring forward 785 before next sessions, namely that of the ex-Pulsion of the Rajah of Sassni, from his territories. He concluded by repeating his most earnest eager wish for as speedy a decision upon the whole of the charges as was consistent with the due ends of justice.
Lord Templedisclaimed having ever expressed a wish or an intention to press the house to a final decision on the subject on any given day.
Here the conversation ended, and the house resolved itself into a committee, and proceeded to the examination of evidence.—Mr. Hobhouse then took the chair, and Mr. Cowper was called in, and examined at the bar on the Oude Charge. It appeared that Mr. Cowper was a member of the supreme council at Bengal, during the years 1798, 1799, and 1800, and the fact sought to be made out from his examination was, how far it consisted with his knowledge that the marquis Wellesley had endeavoured to obtain the entire possession of Oude, and failing in that attempt had contented himself with the half of that territory, in lieu of the sum of money payable by the nabob to the company. Similar objections to questions put for the purpose of learning the witness's construction of the treaty between the nabob the company, as those made toe preceding day, were again urged, and the questions withdrawn. Lord A. Hamilton, Mr. Paull, and Col. Wood, however, maintained that the witness being a member of the council, and one of the parties to the treaty, he must of all others he best qualified to give an opinion as to the fair construction to be put on it. Mr. Hurst asked the witness whether the line of conduct pursued by the marquis of Wellesicy was not, on the whole, calculated to promote the British interests in India, and to protect the dominions of the Nabob of Oude? Witness answered 'In the highest degree.—Sir T. Metcalfe asked whether any other governor the witness had heard of, had more frequently or more confidentially consulted the opinion of the government council than the marquis of Wellesley? The witness answered in the negative. Some further interrogatories were put by Mr. W. Keene, Mr. Paull, and sir W. Young, when the witness withdrew.
§ Mr. Hurstobserved that it was a fundamental principle of the law of that the accused should be presumed innocent until actually found guilty. Therefore he should feel himself warranted in stating that the noble marquis who seas the object of this accusation was innocent, and indeed 786 So far as the evidence. had yet gone nothing but his innocence had appeared. But as it was the object of the accuser to establish the guilt of the accused, he would suggest to him the necessity of bringing forward some evidence congenial to his views. This suggestion he thought it his duty to offer merely for the sake of regularity, without having the honour to know either the honourable member who brought forward the accusation, or the noble defendant.
§ Mr. Paullmaintained that that part of the charge which he had submitted to the house relative to the noble lord's having declined to resort to the advice of his council upon matters of great public importance as his duty prescribed, was fully proved by the evidence even of the last witness.
Mr. Rileywas called in and examined. His statements for the most part went to show that, in the district where he was magistrate, which appeared to be in the ceded provinces, the Zemindars and principle inhabitants, who influenced the mass of the population, were inimical to the British government, in consequence of the introduction of certain regulations, and that they were ripe for revolt. The presence of troops was necessary for the collection of the revenue.—Mr. Beresford, after the witness had been ordered to withdraw, said, that had he not been disinclined to interrupt the business, he would have objected to such questions being put, as they would give information to the enemy.
Major Ouesleywas then examined: he had long resided at Lucknow, and was in the habits of intimate acquaintance with the present nabob, in whose employment he is at present. As to his general character he stated, that he was a man of dignified. manners, and very princely deportment; that he was well versed in all the literature of the East, and was possessed of an excellent taste in architecture and other arts; and that in private life he was social, and fond of horses, of hunting, and of all field amusements. Notwithstanding the intimate acquaintance that the witness had with him, he never saw any great depression of spirits in him on account of the changes introduced by marquis Wellesley. His cavalcade was not quite so great as that of his predecessor, but it was better appointed. He had now in his stables about 3000 of the finest horses, including about 130 Arabian saddle-horses. He had about 1300 elephants, and in all the other expenses of his state he was more sumptuous than before; he went to 787 more expence in building palaces, and furnishing them; and upon the whole, according to his opinion, had had no reason to be dissatisfied with the change. He had, it was true, changed his turban for a while, and suffered his beard to grow, which in that country was considered as a sign of affliction; but since that time he had appeared perfectly reconciled. When Holkar inveded the Dooab he advanced ten lacks of rupees, (About 100.000l.)of his own free will, to enable lord Lake's army to march against him; and there was no less than 400,000l. collected at Lucknow for the same purpose. As to the police that subsisted formerly at Oude, nothing could be worse. It was true, there were but few executions by law, but then it was equally certain, that there was no security either for property or life. The country wasinfected with banditti, who plundered or murdered those who were not well guarded. As an instance of this, he mentioned Mr. Metcalf, who, having gone on a hunting party from his house, was attacked and maimed by some of those banditti, although he had all the necessary Mabratta passports about him. The nabob himself requested marquis Wellesley to suggest to him some improvement in the police and government et his country; to which the marquis replied,that he would first try, as experiments, on the ceded provinces, what he thought would be adviseable, and that if they answered there, the nabob could adopt them with greater confidence. The tendency of the remainder of the testimony of this witness was to exculpate the noble marquis from the matters charged against him.—Some questions were put to him, which he declined answering, on account of the violation that it appeared to him that this would be of private friendship and confidence. Some of the questions were then withdrawn.—Upon the examination as to the charge of the marquis having kept all Europeans from advising with the nabob during the negotiations, the witness was asked, had not the marquis accused Mr. Treves of advising the nabob contrary to the interests of the company? The witness objected on the ground that the answer might implicate the character of Mr. Treves, who was then out of England, and in the service of the company. This objection was, however, at length, over-ruled; and upon the witness being again asked the question, he submitted another objection, namely, thin he had no sort of knowledge except from confidential letters from friends, which he hoped the house would 788 not urge him to disclose.—A long debate took place in the committee respecting this objection and upon the motion of Mr. Johnstone, it was ordered that the gallery should be cleared. Strangers were not again admitted; hut after some further examination of major Ouseley, and of Mr. Johnstone, the chairman had leave to report progress, and to sit again.—At two o'clock on Saturday morning the house adjourned to Monday.