It may be doubted whether the personal antipathy of Francis, or the nobler indignation of Burke, would have led their party to adopt extreme measures against Hastings, if his own conduct had been judicious.  He should have felt that, great as his public services had been, he was not faultless, and should have been content to make his escape, without aspiring to the honours of a triumph.  He and his agent took a different view.  They were impatient for the rewards which, as they conceived, it were deferred only till Burke’s attack should be over.  They accordingly resolved to force on a decisive action with an enemy for whom, if they had been wise, they would have made a bridge of gold.  On the first day of the session of 1786, Major Scott reminded Burke of the notice given in the preceding year, and asked whether it was seriously intended to bring any charge against the late Governor-General.  This challenge left no course open to the Opposition, except to come forward as accusers, or to acknowledge themselves calumniators.  The administration of Hastings had not been so blameless, nor was the great party of Fox and North so feeble, that it could be prudent to venture on so bold a defiance.  The leaders of the Opposition instantly returned the only answer which they could with honour return; and the whole party was irrevocably pledged to a prosecution.

Burke began his operations by applying for Papers.  Some of the documents for which he asked were refused by, the ministers, who, in the debate, held language such as strongly confirmed the prevailing opinion, that they intended to support Hastings.  In April, the charges were laid on the table.  They had been drawn by Burke with great ability, though in a form too much resembling that of a pamphlet.  Hastings was furnished with a copy of the accusation; and it was intimated to him that he might, if he thought fit, be heard in his own defence at the bar of the Commons.

Here again Hastings was pursued by the same fatality which had attended him ever since the day when he set foot on English ground.  It seemed to be decreed that this man, so politic and so successful in the East, should commit nothing but blunders in Europe.  Any judicious adviser would have told him that the best thing which he could do would be to make an eloquent, forcible, and affecting oration at the bar of the House; but that, if he could not trust himself to speak, and found it necessary to read, he ought to be as concise as possible.  Audiences accustomed to extemporaneous debating of the highest excellence are always impatient of long written compositions.  Hastings, however, sat down as he would have done at the Government-house in Bengal, and prepared a paper of immense length.  That paper, if recorded on the consultations of an Indian administration, would have been justly praised as a very able minute.  But it was now out of place.  It fell flat, as the best written defence must have fallen flat, on an assembly accustomed to the animated and strenuous conflicts of Pitt and Fox.  The members, as soon as their curiosity about the face and demeanour of so eminent a stranger was satisfied, walked away to dinner, and left Hastings to tell his story till midnight to the clerks and the Serjeant-at-Arms.