Impeachment of Warren Hastings
Encyclopedia
The Impeachment of Warren Hastings was a failed attempt to impeach the former Governor-General of India
Warren Hastings
in the Parliament of Great Britain
between 1788 and 1795. Hastings was accused of misconduct during his time in Calcutta particularly relating to mismanagement and personal corruption. The prosecution was led by Edmund Burke
and became a wider debate about the role of the East India Company
and the expanding empire
in India.
The trial did not sit continuously and the case dragged on for seven years. When the eventual verdict was given Hastings was overwhelmingly acquitted. It has been described as "probably the British Isles
' most famous, certainly the longest, political trial".
after first travelling out as a clerk
of the East India Company
in 1750. Hastings developed a reputation as an "Indian" who sought to use traditional Indian methods of governance to run British India rather than the policy of importing European-style law, government and culture favoured by many of his colleagues and representatives of other colonial powers in India. After working his way through the ranks of the Company he was appointed in 1773 as Governor General, a new position that had been created
by the North government
in order to improve the running of British India. The old structure of rule had come under strain as the Company's holdings had expanded in recent decades from isolated trading post
s to large swathes of territory and population.
The powers of the Governor General were balanced out by the establishment of a Calcutta Council
which had the authority to veto
his decisions. Hastings spent much of his time in office marshalling his own supporters on the Council in an effort to try and avoid being outvoted.
Hastings soon ran into opposition on the Council. His principal enemy was the Irish-born politician Philip Francis. Francis developed a strong dislike of Hastings and was convinced that the Governor General's policies were self-serving and destructive. This was a belief shared with some other members of the Council who he was able to influence. Francis and Hastings' personal rivalry continued for many years and led to a duel between them in 1780 in which Francis was wounded, but not killed. Francis returned to Britain in 1781 and began raising questions about Hastings' conduct. He found support from many leading opposition Whigs.
In 1780 Hyder Ali
, the ruler of Mysore, went to war with the company after British forces captured the French-controlled port of Mahé. Taking advantage of Britain's involvement in the American War of Independence and the support of French forces Hyder went on the offensive and enjoyed success during the opening stages of the war, inflicting a serious defeat at the Battle of Pollilur
and at one point threatening Madras itself with capture. The Commander in Chief Eyre Coote
went south with reinforcements and defeated Hyder's army in a series of battles which helped to steady the position in the Carnatic. Hyder was unable to secure victory and the war ended in a stalemate
. It was halted by the Treaty of Mangalore
in 1784 which largely restored the status quo ante
. Even so, the British position in India had been severely threatened.
The war shook public confidence and raised questions about the supposed mismanagement by the Company's agents in India. It proved to be a catalyst for the growing campaign in London against Hastings which gathered strength during the ensuing years.
s who returned to Britain from India were widely unpopular. Against this backdrop the criticisms circulated by Francis and others provoked a general consensus that the 1773 India Act hadn't been sufficient to reign in the alleged excesses. The Indian question again became a contentious political issue.
The Fox-North Coalition
fell from power after it attempted to bring in a radical East India Bill in 1783. The following year the new government of William Pitt
passed an India Act of 1784
which established a Board of Control
and which finally stabilised the governance of India.
Hastings was personally attacked by Charles James Fox
during the presentation of his India Bill. When Pitt introduced his Bill he failed to mention Hastings at all, seen as expressing a lack of confidence, and made wide-ranging criticisms of the Company. He suggested that recent Indians wars had been ruinous and unnecessary. Hastings was particularly upset by this, as he was an admirer of Pitt. By now, Hastings wished to resign and return home unless the role of Governor General was given greater freedom to exercise power - which was unlikely to be granted him. He handed over to an Acting Governor General, John MacPherson until a permanent replacement was appointed.
. Hastings anticipated he would face attacks in parliament and the press but expected them to be short-lived and to fall away once he was there in person to defend himself. Initially this proved to be the case as enjoyed an audience with King George III and a unanimous vote of thanks by the directors of the East India Company. Hastings even hoped to be awarded an Irish peerage. However, in Parliament Edmund Burke
announced he "would at a future date make a motion respecting the conduct of a gentleman just returned from India".
In early 1786 Burke began his first move by raising questions over Hastings' role in the Maratha War
. The attacks on Hastings were largely made by opposition Whigs hoping to embarrass the government of William Pitt
. Pitt and other government ministers such as Dundas defended Hastings and suggested that he had saved the British Empire in Asia. Philip Francis made eleven specific charges against Hastings, and others later followed. They covered various subjects such as the Rohilla War
, execution of Nanda-Kumar and Hastings' treatment of the Rajah of Benares. Pitt broadly defended Hastings, but declared his punishment of the Rajah had been excessive. In the wake of this an anti-Hastings motion was passed in the Commons 119-79.
Encouraged by Pitt's failure to adequately support Hastings, his opponents pressed on with their campaign. The situation quickly deteriorated for Hastings. It soon became clear that he was heading towards an impeachment
. Hastings recruited Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough
to act in his defence. On 21 May 1787 Hastings was arrested by the Serjeant-at-Arms
and taken to the House of Lords to hear the charges against him.
Hastings was to be prosecuted in the House of Lords by an Impeachment Committee. Impeachment
was a relatively rare process of prosecuting those in high public office. Previous figures who had faced such trials included the Duke of Buckingham
, a favourite of James I
, and the Earl of Stafford
, whose impeachment failed (but was followed up by a legislative bill of attainder
that resulted in Stafford's execution).
who took four days to cover all the charges against Hastings. Burke took the
proceedings very seriously but for many spectators the trial resembled a social event.
Hastings was granted bail
in spite of Burke's suggestion that he might flee the country with the wealth he had allegedly stolen from India. Further speeches were made over the coming weeks by other leading Whigs such as Richard Brinsley Sheridan
and Charles James Fox
. In total there were nineteen members of the Impeachment Committee.
began in 1789. Sheridan now complained he was "heartily tired of the Hastings trial" despite being one of its instigators. As the trial progressed, public attitudes about Hastings also began to shift. Hastings had initially been overwhelmingly portrayed as guilty in the popular press, but doubts were increasingly raised. Increased support for Hastings may have been a result of declining perceptions of his accusers. In a cartoon James Gillray
portrayed Hastings as the "Saviour of India" being assaulted by bandits resembling Burke and Fox.
A major lift for the defence came with the testimony on 9 April 1794 of Lord Cornwallis
who had recently returned from India, where he succeeded Hastings as Governor General. Cornwallis rejected the accusations that Hastings' actions had damaged Britain's reputation and observed that Hastings was universally popular with the inhabitants. When asked if he had "found any just cause to impeach the character of Mr Hastings?" he replied "never".
A further blow for the prosecution came with the evidence of William Larkins the former Accountant General
of Bengal. They had rested their hopes on his revealing widespread corruption but he denied that Hastings had amassed any illicit money and made a defence of his conduct. Various other figures came forwards as character witnesses to support Hastings.
Lord Loughborough oversaw the delivery of the verdict
. A third of the Lords who had attended the trial's opening had since died and only twenty nine of the others had sat through enough of the evidence to be permitted to pronounce judgement. Loughborough asked each of the peers sixteen questions relating to individual charges. On most charges he was unanimously found not guilty. On three questions five or six peers gave guilty
verdicts, but Hasting was still comfortably cleared by majority vote. This overwhelming verdict had been expected for some time and caused little surprise.
Burke who had invested a large amount of time and energy into the prosecution was frustrated by the ultimate failure of the impeachment. He had warned that the Lords that it would be "to the perpetual infamy" of the House if they voted to acquit and remained convinced of Hastings' guilt until his death in 1797.
Hastings was left financially ruined by the impeachment and was left with debts of £70,000. Unlike many other Indian officials he had not amassed a large fortune while in India and he had to fund his legal defence, which had cost an estimated £71,000, out of his own funds. He appealed to the British government for financial assistance and was eventually compensated by the East India Company with a loan of £50,000 and a pension of £4,000 a year.
Although this did not solve all his financial worries, Hastings was ultimately able to fulfil his lifelong ambition of purchasing the family's traditional estate of Daylesford
in Worcestershire
which had been lost in a previous generation. Hastings held no further public office, but was regarded as an expert on Indian matters and was asked to give evidence to parliament on the subject in 1812. After he had finished giving his testimony, the members all stood up in an almost unprecedented act for anyone other than the royal family.
Hastings' successors as Governor General, beginning with Lord Cornwallis, were granted the much wider powers that Hastings had sought while in Calcutta. Pitt's India Act served to move much of the supervisory role for India away from the East India Company directors and officials in Leadenhall Street
to a new political Board of Control
based in London.
The overwhelming failure to secure a conviction, and the stream of testimony that came out of India praising him have led commentators to ask why Hastings, who appeared to many observers to have given dedicated service to the company and to have curbed its worst excess, ended up being prosecuted in the first place. A number of factors may have played a part, including partisan
politics, although Pitt joined the opposition in supporting the Impeachment.
There has been particular focus on the role played by Pitt - particularly his sudden withdrawal of outright support for Hastings in 1786 which galvanised the opposition into pursuing the case. It is possible that Pitt believed "he ran the very genuine risk of being accused by the opposition of shielding a notorious criminal from justice, for political reasons". Henry Dundas was himself later impeached in 1806 and acquitted in the final ever impeachment in Britain.
Governor-General of India
The Governor-General of India was the head of the British administration in India, and later, after Indian independence, the representative of the monarch and de facto head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William...
Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings PC was the first Governor-General of India, from 1773 to 1785. He was famously accused of corruption in an impeachment in 1787, but was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1814.-Early life:...
in the Parliament of Great Britain
Parliament of Great Britain
The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland...
between 1788 and 1795. Hastings was accused of misconduct during his time in Calcutta particularly relating to mismanagement and personal corruption. The prosecution was led by Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
and became a wider debate about the role of the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
and the expanding empire
Company rule in India
Company rule in India refers to the rule or dominion of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent...
in India.
The trial did not sit continuously and the case dragged on for seven years. When the eventual verdict was given Hastings was overwhelmingly acquitted. It has been described as "probably the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
' most famous, certainly the longest, political trial".
Appointment
Born in 1732, Warren Hastings spent much of his adult life in IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
after first travelling out as a clerk
Clerk
Clerk, the vocational title, commonly refers to a white-collar worker who conducts general office or, in some instances, sales tasks. It is also occasionally used to refer to third-year medical students completing a medical clerkship. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record...
of the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
in 1750. Hastings developed a reputation as an "Indian" who sought to use traditional Indian methods of governance to run British India rather than the policy of importing European-style law, government and culture favoured by many of his colleagues and representatives of other colonial powers in India. After working his way through the ranks of the Company he was appointed in 1773 as Governor General, a new position that had been created
Regulating Act of 1773
The Regulating Act of 1773 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain intended to overhaul the management of the East India Company's rule in India...
by the North government
North Ministry
The North Ministry governed the Kingdom of Great Britain from 1770 until 1782. Overseeing in this time the Falklands Crisis, the Gordon Riots and much of the American War of Independence. It was headed by the Tory politician Lord North and served under George III.-Membership:...
in order to improve the running of British India. The old structure of rule had come under strain as the Company's holdings had expanded in recent decades from isolated trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
s to large swathes of territory and population.
The powers of the Governor General were balanced out by the establishment of a Calcutta Council
Council of Four (India)
The Council of Four was established in 1773 to limit the influence of the Governor-General of India, Warren Hastings. It is sometimes referred to as the Calcutta Council. It consisted of Sir Philip Francis, Lt. General Sir John Clavering, The Honourable Sir George Monson and a designated East India...
which had the authority to veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...
his decisions. Hastings spent much of his time in office marshalling his own supporters on the Council in an effort to try and avoid being outvoted.
Disputes and war
In 1780 Hyder Ali
Hyder Ali
Hyder Ali was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born Hyder Naik, he distinguished himself militarily, eventually drawing the attention of Mysore's rulers...
, the ruler of Mysore, went to war with the company after British forces captured the French-controlled port of Mahé. Taking advantage of Britain's involvement in the American War of Independence and the support of French forces Hyder went on the offensive and enjoyed success during the opening stages of the war, inflicting a serious defeat at the Battle of Pollilur
Battle of Pollilur
The Battle of Pollilur, also known as the Battle of Polilore or Battle of Perambakam, took place on 10 September 1780 at Pollilur near the city of Kanchipuram in present-day Tamil Nadu state, India as part of the Second Anglo-Mysore War...
and at one point threatening Madras itself with capture. The Commander in Chief Eyre Coote
Eyre Coote
Lieutenant-General Sir Eyre Coote, KB was an Irish soldier. He is best known for his many years of service with the British Army in India. His victory at the Battle of Wandiwash is considered a decisive turning point in the struggle for control in India between British and France...
went south with reinforcements and defeated Hyder's army in a series of battles which helped to steady the position in the Carnatic. Hyder was unable to secure victory and the war ended in a stalemate
Stalemate
Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....
. It was halted by the Treaty of Mangalore
Treaty of Mangalore
The Treaty of Mangalore was signed between Tippu Sultan and the British East India Company on 11 March 1784. It was signed in Mangalore and brought an end to the Second Anglo-Mysore War.-Background:...
in 1784 which largely restored the status quo ante
Status quo ante bellum
The term status quo ante bellum is Latin, meaning literally "the state in which things were before the war".The term was originally used in treaties to refer to the withdrawal of enemy troops and the restoration of prewar leadership. When used as such, it means that no side gains or loses...
. Even so, the British position in India had been severely threatened.
The war shook public confidence and raised questions about the supposed mismanagement by the Company's agents in India. It proved to be a catalyst for the growing campaign in London against Hastings which gathered strength during the ensuing years.
First attacks
The Company had already gone through scandals in the 1760s and 1770s and the wealthy nabobNabob
A nabob, an English form of "nawab", is a merchant-leader of high social status and wealth.Nabob may also refer to:*Nabob , a brand of coffee in Canada*HMS Nabob , a Bogue-class escort aircraft carrier...
s who returned to Britain from India were widely unpopular. Against this backdrop the criticisms circulated by Francis and others provoked a general consensus that the 1773 India Act hadn't been sufficient to reign in the alleged excesses. The Indian question again became a contentious political issue.
The Fox-North Coalition
Fox-North Coalition
The Fox-North Coalition was a government in Great Britain that held office during 1783. As the name suggests, the ministry was a coalition of the groups supporting Charles James Fox and Lord North...
fell from power after it attempted to bring in a radical East India Bill in 1783. The following year the new government of William Pitt
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
passed an India Act of 1784
Pitt's India Act
The East India Company Act 1784, also known as Pitt's India Act, was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain intended to address the shortcomings of the Regulating Act of 1773 by bringing the East India Company's rule in India under the control of the British Government...
which established a Board of Control
President of the Board of Control
The President of the Board of Control was a British government official in the late 18th and early 19th century responsible for overseeing the British East India Company and generally serving as the chief official in London responsible for Indian affairs. The position was frequently a cabinet...
and which finally stabilised the governance of India.
Hastings was personally attacked by Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox PC , styled The Honourable from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...
during the presentation of his India Bill. When Pitt introduced his Bill he failed to mention Hastings at all, seen as expressing a lack of confidence, and made wide-ranging criticisms of the Company. He suggested that recent Indians wars had been ruinous and unnecessary. Hastings was particularly upset by this, as he was an admirer of Pitt. By now, Hastings wished to resign and return home unless the role of Governor General was given greater freedom to exercise power - which was unlikely to be granted him. He handed over to an Acting Governor General, John MacPherson until a permanent replacement was appointed.
Return to Britain
Hastings sailed for home on 6 February and reached Britain in June 1785. During the voyage he wrote a defence of his conduct The State of Bengal and presented it to Henry DundasHenry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville PC and Baron Dunira was a Scottish lawyer and politician. He was the first Secretary of State for War and the last person to be impeached in the United Kingdom....
. Hastings anticipated he would face attacks in parliament and the press but expected them to be short-lived and to fall away once he was there in person to defend himself. Initially this proved to be the case as enjoyed an audience with King George III and a unanimous vote of thanks by the directors of the East India Company. Hastings even hoped to be awarded an Irish peerage. However, in Parliament Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
announced he "would at a future date make a motion respecting the conduct of a gentleman just returned from India".
In early 1786 Burke began his first move by raising questions over Hastings' role in the Maratha War
First Anglo-Maratha War
The First Anglo-Maratha War was the first of three Anglo-Maratha wars fought between the British East India Company and Maratha Empire in India. The war began with the Treaty of Surat and ended with the Treaty of Salbai.-Background:...
. The attacks on Hastings were largely made by opposition Whigs hoping to embarrass the government of William Pitt
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
. Pitt and other government ministers such as Dundas defended Hastings and suggested that he had saved the British Empire in Asia. Philip Francis made eleven specific charges against Hastings, and others later followed. They covered various subjects such as the Rohilla War
Rohilla War
The First Rohilla War of 1773-1774 was a punitive campaign by Shuja-ud-Daula, Nawab of Awadh, against the Rohillas, Afghan highlanders settled in Rohilkhand, northern India...
, execution of Nanda-Kumar and Hastings' treatment of the Rajah of Benares. Pitt broadly defended Hastings, but declared his punishment of the Rajah had been excessive. In the wake of this an anti-Hastings motion was passed in the Commons 119-79.
Encouraged by Pitt's failure to adequately support Hastings, his opponents pressed on with their campaign. The situation quickly deteriorated for Hastings. It soon became clear that he was heading towards an impeachment
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
. Hastings recruited Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough
Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough
Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough PC KC was an English judge. After serving as a Member of Parliament and Attorney General, he became Lord Chief Justice.-Early life:...
to act in his defence. On 21 May 1787 Hastings was arrested by the Serjeant-at-Arms
Serjeant-at-Arms of the British House of Commons
The Serjeant at Arms of the British House of Commons is an official responsible for the security of the House of Commons. The offices dates to 1415.The House of Lords also had a Serjeant-at-Arms...
and taken to the House of Lords to hear the charges against him.
Hastings was to be prosecuted in the House of Lords by an Impeachment Committee. Impeachment
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
was a relatively rare process of prosecuting those in high public office. Previous figures who had faced such trials included the Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover, of King James I of England. Despite a very patchy political and military record, he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of Charles I, until he was assassinated...
, a favourite of James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
, and the Earl of Stafford
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I. From 1632 to 1639 he instituted a harsh rule as Lord Deputy of Ireland...
, whose impeachment failed (but was followed up by a legislative bill of attainder
Bill of attainder
A bill of attainder is an act of a legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a judicial trial.-English law:...
that resulted in Stafford's execution).
Opening
Hastings' trial began on 13 February 1788 and took place in Westminster Hall with members of the House of Commons seated to his right and the Lords to his left and a large audience of spectators, including royalty, in the boxes and public galleries. The proceedings began with a lengthy address by Edmund BurkeEdmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
who took four days to cover all the charges against Hastings. Burke took the
proceedings very seriously but for many spectators the trial resembled a social event.
Hastings was granted bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
in spite of Burke's suggestion that he might flee the country with the wealth he had allegedly stolen from India. Further speeches were made over the coming weeks by other leading Whigs such as Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford , Westminster and Ilchester...
and Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox PC , styled The Honourable from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...
. In total there were nineteen members of the Impeachment Committee.
Public opinion changes
In spite of the early excitement about the trial public interest in it began to wane as it dragged on over months and years. Other major events dominated the news particularly once the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
began in 1789. Sheridan now complained he was "heartily tired of the Hastings trial" despite being one of its instigators. As the trial progressed, public attitudes about Hastings also began to shift. Hastings had initially been overwhelmingly portrayed as guilty in the popular press, but doubts were increasingly raised. Increased support for Hastings may have been a result of declining perceptions of his accusers. In a cartoon James Gillray
James Gillray
James Gillray , was a British caricaturist and printmaker famous for his etched political and social satires, mainly published between 1792 and 1810.- Early life :He was born in Chelsea...
portrayed Hastings as the "Saviour of India" being assaulted by bandits resembling Burke and Fox.
A major lift for the defence came with the testimony on 9 April 1794 of Lord Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis KG , styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as The Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army officer and colonial administrator...
who had recently returned from India, where he succeeded Hastings as Governor General. Cornwallis rejected the accusations that Hastings' actions had damaged Britain's reputation and observed that Hastings was universally popular with the inhabitants. When asked if he had "found any just cause to impeach the character of Mr Hastings?" he replied "never".
A further blow for the prosecution came with the evidence of William Larkins the former Accountant General
Accountant General
The Accountant General or Accountant-General was formerly an officer in the English Court of Chancery who received all moneys lodged in court, deposited them in a bank, and disbursed them. The office was abolished by the Chancery Funds Act of 1872, with the duties transferred to the...
of Bengal. They had rested their hopes on his revealing widespread corruption but he denied that Hastings had amassed any illicit money and made a defence of his conduct. Various other figures came forwards as character witnesses to support Hastings.
Verdict
On 23 April 1795 the Lord ChancellorLord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
Lord Loughborough oversaw the delivery of the verdict
Verdict
In law, a verdict is the formal finding of fact made by a jury on matters or questions submitted to the jury by a judge. The term, from the Latin veredictum, literally means "to say the truth" and is derived from Middle English verdit, from Anglo-Norman: a compound of ver and dit In law, a verdict...
. A third of the Lords who had attended the trial's opening had since died and only twenty nine of the others had sat through enough of the evidence to be permitted to pronounce judgement. Loughborough asked each of the peers sixteen questions relating to individual charges. On most charges he was unanimously found not guilty. On three questions five or six peers gave guilty
Guilty
Guilty commonly refers to the feeling of guilt, an experience that occurs when a person believes that they have violated a moral standard.Guilty or The Guilty may also refer to:-Law:*Guilty plea, a formal admission of legal culpability...
verdicts, but Hasting was still comfortably cleared by majority vote. This overwhelming verdict had been expected for some time and caused little surprise.
Burke who had invested a large amount of time and energy into the prosecution was frustrated by the ultimate failure of the impeachment. He had warned that the Lords that it would be "to the perpetual infamy" of the House if they voted to acquit and remained convinced of Hastings' guilt until his death in 1797.
Aftermath
Although this did not solve all his financial worries, Hastings was ultimately able to fulfil his lifelong ambition of purchasing the family's traditional estate of Daylesford
Daylesford, Gloucestershire
Daylesford is a small village in Gloucestershire, England, on the border with Oxfordshire. It is situated off the A436 near Stow-on-the-Wold and five miles west of Chipping Norton. The village is on the north bank of the small River Evenlode...
in Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
which had been lost in a previous generation. Hastings held no further public office, but was regarded as an expert on Indian matters and was asked to give evidence to parliament on the subject in 1812. After he had finished giving his testimony, the members all stood up in an almost unprecedented act for anyone other than the royal family.
Hastings' successors as Governor General, beginning with Lord Cornwallis, were granted the much wider powers that Hastings had sought while in Calcutta. Pitt's India Act served to move much of the supervisory role for India away from the East India Company directors and officials in Leadenhall Street
Leadenhall Street
Leadenhall Street is a street in the City of London, formerly part of the A11. It runs east from Cornhill to Aldgate, and west vice-versa. Aldgate Pump is at the junction with Aldgate...
to a new political Board of Control
President of the Board of Control
The President of the Board of Control was a British government official in the late 18th and early 19th century responsible for overseeing the British East India Company and generally serving as the chief official in London responsible for Indian affairs. The position was frequently a cabinet...
based in London.
The overwhelming failure to secure a conviction, and the stream of testimony that came out of India praising him have led commentators to ask why Hastings, who appeared to many observers to have given dedicated service to the company and to have curbed its worst excess, ended up being prosecuted in the first place. A number of factors may have played a part, including partisan
Partisan (political)
In politics, a partisan is a committed member of a political party. In multi-party systems, the term is widely understood to carry a negative connotation - referring to those who wholly support their party's policies and are perhaps even reluctant to acknowledge correctness on the part of their...
politics, although Pitt joined the opposition in supporting the Impeachment.
There has been particular focus on the role played by Pitt - particularly his sudden withdrawal of outright support for Hastings in 1786 which galvanised the opposition into pursuing the case. It is possible that Pitt believed "he ran the very genuine risk of being accused by the opposition of shielding a notorious criminal from justice, for political reasons". Henry Dundas was himself later impeached in 1806 and acquitted in the final ever impeachment in Britain.