The Sun.
London, England, 1825-03-03 00:00:00

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THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 3, 1825.

EAST INDIA-HOUSF, MOND,TY, FEB. 28.

THE MARQUIS Or HASTINGS..

, .
A Special Court of Proprwtors of East India
Stock was held this day, by adjo,aninent from Friday last, at
the East India
,House, Leadenholl.street for the purpose of
taking into consideration the flalerabad Papers, which had
been laid before the Honourable Proprietors., relative to certain
pecuniary transactions with the house of 'Palmer and Co., so far
as they respected the c:mduct of the Mi:tt Noble the Marquis
of Hastings, late Governor-General of India.
The Secretary having read the Retplution of th'e 3d of
March, 1824, the original motion, and tae amendment moved
thereon—

The CHAIRMAN (William Asta, Esq) informed the Court,
that they were met to resume the Debar on the Hyderabad_
Papers, so far as they affected the character of the Marquis of
Hastings.
Mr. FRESHFIELD said he rose to explain. Ilis.public duty
in another ptace had prevented his attending at the last Meet-
ing ; but he understood that the Gallant General • (Sir John
Doyle) had referred to him (Mr. Freslifield) as being the solici-
tor of-Mr. Adam. Now although lie shvld feel disposed to
contend; that if that Gentleman stood in need of a friend in this
Court, he should not be the less inclined to /gide: him his (Mr.
Freshfield's) assistance liero, because he happened to be his (Mr.
Adam's) solicitor, yet he should take it for granted that 'the
Gallant General would hardly impute it to him that he came to
this Court as Mr. Adam's solicitor. It was however fit that he
(Mr. Freslitield) should state, both in justice.to himself and to
-.Hr. Adam, that he had never seen that gentleman once in his
life, nor did he know anything of him either directly or indi-
rectly, but as being a son of much esteemed friend of his (Mr.
Freshfield's), whose character he had for many .years in unison
with a great number ofoth2r gentlemen, much admired. Hay-
ing received the Papers now before the Court,and perused them
carefully, he could not.see any thing that at all reflected on the
character of Mr. Adam ; and as that Gentleman had been made
the object of attackhe (Mr: Freshfield) thought that the Papers
would -justify hini in defending that Gentleman. t', therefor, ,
he had found it necessary to defend him, it was not his (Mr.
Freshfield's) fault, but the fault of those lion. Proprietors who
had made the attack.

• Sir JOHN DOYLE begged to state, that what he complained
of wag, that the friends of Mr. Adam should have thought it
necessary to come forward to vindicate that Gentleman's cha-
racter when it was not under consideration. It certainly did
appear to him (Sir J. Doyle) strange that Mr. Adam should be
so warmly defended,•when no one had brought, or even thought
of bringing a charge against him.
Mr. i MPEY rose merely for the purposeof calling to the Gal-
lant General's recollection one fact, in order to show him that
he was in error when he said that Mr. Adam had not been
made an object of attack. It would be remembered that an
Hon. Proprietor (Mr. Hume) had said, on the first day of this
debate,' that if the amendment were carried, or whether it were
carried or not, he (Mr. Hume) did not know but that the con-
duct of Mr. Adam would he n.ade the subject of an impeach-
ment.—( Hear !)
Captain MaxwEie observed, that as he was conscious
that lie was the worst speaker in this Court, but most certainly
should not be thelongest, he had risen first. He was not pre-
pared-with a set speech, but he should endeavour to make an
intelligible one.; and if he should hobble over the ground from
want of training, he hoped the Court would pot attribute it to
a want of sincerity. If he should mistake assertion for proof,
intbrmation from hearsay for confirmed evidence, and decla-
mation for argutiient--if he, like a magnanimous man, should
enter upon a vindication of the character of those whose' cha-
racters had-not been attacked, then he should plead in his de-
fence the practice of this Court, and confidently hope for its in-
dulgence. The Marquis of Hastings had administered the al-
fairs of the Company for a period'o't nine years ; his merits had
been recorded and acknowledged by a gift of 60,0001. sterling.
During his administration, however, the Noble Marquis had
sanctioned the proceedings of the house of Palmer and... Co-
mpany. Those, proceedings, -and.that sanction, he (Captain
Maxwell) was ready to admit, deserved the disapprobation of
the Court of Directors. Rurnotir accused the Marquis of Ifas
tings of dishonourable condo& and partiality in that mat-
ter. He (Captain Maxwell) had bestowed moth .tune in per-.
using the gres! '.:eOsen by the tioess them ; and the policy
was not going to defend ; but that book containedt-ifairard-rof
suo documents, not more than one.-fiftieth part Of which were
before the Marquis of Hastings when he granted that licence;
and therefore the Proprietors of this Court ought only to judge
of that Nobleman's conduct from the same documents as the
Marquis'liad before him. If the Marquis had had the advan-
tage which this Court had, he (Curtain Maxwell) did not think
that Noble Lord would have acted'as he did. But it was not
kis (Captain Maxwell's) wish to say that these voluminous do-
cuments were laid before them for the purpose of bewildering.
Ile had the minutes of Mr. Stuart and Mr. Adam, as well as
those of the Marquis of Hastings; and although they were
subsequent to the first ten documents, which were all that were
in existence when the Marquis granted the licence, yet he was
ready to admit that both Mr. Stuart and Mr. Adam, in their
opposition in Council to the Noble Marquis had acted ho.
neatly and conscientiously ; and he would say that they deserv-
ed the thanks of this Court, as well as his Lordship himself.—
( Hear, hear !)--But he had no doubt that that opposition pre-
cipitated the measure of Lord Hastings. With regard to the
Hyderabad accounts, he could not but declare that the expla-
nation of Mr. Russell, the late Resident there, on a former day
of this debate, appeared to him both clear and convincing, But
when he (Captain M.) read the papers he must at the same time
acknowledge that he did not go into the accounts, for he did
think that this Court was not the best place for such an inves-
tigation. It appeared to him that the most proper place for
going into those accounts would be either Hyderabad or Cal.
cutta, at all events it was not London. An Honourable Pro-
prietor (Mr. Weeding) had indeed said,' that the whole of that
was a fallacy; lie (Captain M.) would acknowledge that he
could not ascertain whether the accounts were false or true, but
he was disposed to think they were perfectly true. But at all
events he thought the accounts ought to be examined into with-
out any reference to this Court. With respect to the charge of
high interest havinp*een exacted from the Nizam, he begged
to say that 24 per cent in India was not so extraordinary as
many Hon. Proprietors seemed to conceive. He had himself
lent money at 12 per cent., and by exchanging the bills, had
obtained a discount which made it in the whole more than 24
per cent. —(Hear, hear !)—He was at Calcutta at the time the
loan in question was made, and having some unemployed cash
he was recommended by a Gallant General to put it in the
loan ; he was first desirous of ascertaining what sort of a
security it was that he was to receive from the Nizam ; but he
confessed that with all the security of his Highness, and the
guarantee of which the Hon. Proprietor (Mr. Stuart) had
spoken, he declined advancing one farthing on the loan.—
(Hear:hear, !)—But why was interest higher in India than in
this country ? The reason was obvious, though it was not gene-
rally perceived. In England, in a time of war, when the far-
mer wanted money, he obtained it perhaps at the highest rate,
being only 8 per cent. ; the English farmer could raise but one
crop from his land in a year, but in India the people could rea-
lise three or four crops in the same space of time.--(Hear,
hear !)—This being the fact, he (Captain Maxwell) could see
no reason why interest should not be trebled in that country,
when our mother' earth was so much more productive there
than here. When the loan was first granted, it was stated at
50 lacs of rupees, but subsequently it had reached 100 lacs.
He thought this measure resulted from the House lending
money at so easy a rate.—(Hear, hear !)—ln adverting to the
amendment, which went to approve of the dispatches of the
Court of Directors in reference to the transactions at Hydera-
bad, Captain Maxwell observed, that the acts of the Court of
Directors were the acts of the Proprietors at large ; the Direc-
tors were the constituted Attornies of this Court, and the Go-
vernment had moreover appointed a Board to ratify the acts of
the Directors, and he (Captain Maxwell) therefore thought that
the Proprietors had no right to express an opinion with regard
to those dispatches; if this practice were to be adopted, lie did
not know when the business of the Court would end.—(Hear !)
He would now declare that he did not conceive the charges
against the Marciis of Hastings to be established. There were
he regretted to see such
Writer, but he (Capt.
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Proprietors had been called upon to give an
opinion so import
most extensive property, they were
ant to their future interests. As merchants, they -were called
vigilance over their servants.
upon to introduce order, instead of that accursed system of pe-
culation which had worked so dangerously to the interests of
India ; and as trustees of 3
bound to exert a watchful