Nor must it be forgotten that the principal reason assigned by the ministry for not impeaching Hastings on account of the Rohilla war was this, that the delinquencies of the early part of his administration had been atoned for by the excellence of the later part.  Was it not most extraordinary that men who had held this language could afterwards vote that the later part of his administration furnished matter for no less than twenty articles of impeachment?  They first represented the conduct of Hastings in 1780 and 1781 as so highly meritorious that, like works of supererogation in the Catholic theology, it ought to be efficacious for the cancelling of former offences; and they then prosecuted him for his conduct in 1780 and 1781.

The general astonishment was the greater, because, only twenty-four hours before, the members on whom the minister could depend had received the usual notes from the Treasury, begging them to be in their places and to vote against Mr. Fox’s motion.  It was asserted by Mr. Hastings, that, early on the morning of the very day on which the debate took place, Dundas called on Pitt, woke him, and was, closeted with him many hours.  The result of this conference was a determination to give up the late Governor-General to the vengeance of the Opposition.  It was impossible even for the most powerful minister to carry all his followers with him in so strange a course.  Several persons high in office, the Attorney-General, Mr. Grenville, and Lord Mulgrave, divided against Mr. Pitt.  But the devoted adherents who stood by the head of the Government without asking questions, were sufficiently numerous to turn the scale.  A hundred and nineteen members voted for Mr. Fox’s motion; seventy-nine against it.  Dundas silently followed Pitt.

That good and great man, the late William Wilberforce, often related the events of this remarkable night.  He described the amazement of the House, and the bitter reflections which were muttered against the Prime Minister by some of the habitual supporters of Government.  Pitt himself appeared to feel that his conduct required some explanation.  He left the treasury bench, sat for some time next to Mr. Wilberforce, and very earnestly declared that he had found it impossible, as a man of conscience, to stand any longer by Hastings.  The business, he said, was too bad.  Mr. Wilberforce, we are bound to add, fully believed that his friend was sincere, and that the suspicions to which this mysterious affair gave rise were altogether unfounded.

Those suspicions, indeed, were such as it is painful to mention.  The friends of Hastings, most of whom, it is to be observed, generally supported the administration, affirmed that the motive of Pitt and Dundas was jealousy.  Hastings was personally a favourite with the King.  He was the idol of the East India Company and of its servants.  If he were absolved by the Commons, seated among the Lords, admitted to the Board of Control, closely allied with the strong-minded and imperious Thurlow, was it not almost certain that he would soon draw to himself the entire management of Eastern affairs?