Mr. Burke.

Mr. Burke, in a fhort fpeech, contended that it would be impoffible not to criminate the judges, if criminating facts fhould arife in the course of the enquiry.

The motion was agreed to.

Copies of the Petitions prefented to the House.

A petition of John Touchet and John Irving, agents for the British fubjects refiding in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Oriffa, and their feveral dependencies, whose names are fubfcribed to the petition hereinafter fet forth, was prefented to the House, and read; fetting forth, that the petitioners have received the copy of a petition, certified, by a notary publick in Calutta, at Fort William in Bengal, to be a true copy of an original petition to this honourable House, figned by fix hundred and forty-eight of the British fubjects refiding in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and their several dependencies, which copy, fo authenticated as aforefaid, is in the words following: To the honourable the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament affembled.

The humble petition of the British fubjects refiding in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and their feveral dependencies,

Sheweth,

That your petitioners, labouring under the weight of many and great grievances, know not where to apply for relief with fo much propriety and confidence as to the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament affembled, the great guardians of the liberties and properties of British fubjects.

That your petitioners humbly conceive, there are certain rights inherent in Englishmen, and confirmed by the most facred acts of the legiflature, which no power on earth can legally deprive them of, where the laws of Great Britain are in force.

That your petitioners obferved, with the deepest concern and affliction, that, at the paffing of the act of the 13th of George the Third, inituled, “An act for eftablishing certain regulations for the better management of the affairs of the Eaft India company, as well in India, as in Europe," and previous to it, very erroneous reports had been propagated, and injurious ideas entertained, of the principles and practices of the British fubjects refiding within thefe provinces; from which it was inferred, that they required more rigorous reftraints and coertions than have been ufually impofed upon Englishmen.

That your petitioners, knowing fuch reports, when applied to the community, to be void of all foundation in truth, did flatter themselves, that time, better information, and their own loyal and obedient conduct, would have convinced their enemies, and the whole English nation, of the injuftice and cruelty of these fuppofitions, and have excited the known candour of the British Parliament to frame, in their wifdom, fuch ordinances and regulations as were better adapted to the real circumstances and fituation of your petitioners.

That your petitioners have, for fome years, vainly flattered themfelves with this expectation; and now find, to their unspeakable forrow,

that

that their dutiful fubmiffion appears only to have encouraged the juftices of the fupreme court to proceed ftep by step in reducing them to the moft grievous diftrefs, till your petitioners have in fact been put out of the law by a declaration from the bench on a folemn occafion, that the act of Parliament above recited was not intended for the fecurity and protection of the whole, but for the immediate protection of a part of the inhabitants of thefe provinces.

That your petitioners humbly conceive, that the trial by jury, in all cafes where it can be granted, is one of thofe inherent, unalienable, and indefeasible rights, of which neither time nor circumstance can deprive a British fubject living under British laws; yet the justices of the fupreme court of judicature in Bengal have, by the actual or affumed powers of a charter granted under an act of Parliament, refused to allow your petitioners the benefit of this facred bulwark of their freedom, except in criminal cafes, thereby, as your petitioners apprehend, acting in direct contradiction to the late act of Parliament, to the fundamental law of the land, and the great charter of British liberties : this grievance, fo infupportable, must come home to the breast of every Englishman, and none will feel it more fenfibly than the enlightened members of a British fenate.

With all due fubmiffion to the will of their most gracious Sovereign, and with the moft loyal and fincere affection for his perfon, family, and government, your petitioners humbly apprehend, that neither letters patent nor any other grant can be valid, if made contrary to the known law of the land; yet the faid juftices, acting under letters patent, affume a power not only to fine and imprifon your petitioners, but to decide on all actions for damages for perfonal wrongs, both determining the fact, and affeffing the damages to any amount, at their own discretion, thereby taking to themselves an uncontrouled domi. nion over the perfons and property of your petitioners, to the great fear and imminent danger of all British subjects.

Your petitioners humbly conceive, that in all fubject states, but more especially in one fo remote from the feat of empire, where the difproportion between the governing power and thofe governed is fo great as to make the prefent fafety and future permanency of the dominion itself depend entirely upon the precarious tie of ideal fuperiority, that all poffible tendernefs and caution should be used, to prevent that opinion being weakened or destroyed, or the authority or reputation of the government leffened, left the multitude fhould be encou raged to put themselves on a level with their rulers, and lofe that idea of their fuperior power by which alone they are held in subjection; but, to the great mortification and alarm of your petitioners, they fee the respect and veneration which the natives have heretofore manifested for the government daily decreafing, owing, as your petitioners verily believe, to the extenfion of the authority of the court acting indepen dent of the government to perfons and cafes where they conceive it never was the intention of the legislature to allow them to act, a spirit of contempt for its authority and for Europeans in general heretofore un known, diffusing itself among the natives, which, if not reftrained in due time, must terminate in difaffection and resistance, and ultimately Nana occafion

occafion the deftruation of the British fubie&ts refiding in thefe provinces, and the lofs of thefe valuable dominions to the crown of Great Britain for ever.

That your petitioners, entertaining the moft perfect conviction of the truth of thefe obfervations, fuggefted by the refistance shewn to the acthority of government in various parts of thefe provinces, and by the late daring tumult, heretofore unprecedented, which happened in open day in the capital, and at the entrance of the feat of judicature itfelf, offer them with fubmiffion to your moft ferious confideration.

Your petitioners have been informed, and believe, that ex post fado and retrofpective laws are contrary to natural justice, incompatible with the laws of England, and irreconcileable to the feelings of a British Parliament, and that they are held in abhorrence by the nation; that, if thefe principles are admitted in England, and acknowledged to be productive of the most fatal confequences, they must aply ftill more forcibly to a fubjected country, fituated at the distance of half the globe, where the manners, cuftoms, laws, and prejudices of the people, differ fo widely from thofe of the governing nation; your petitioners appeal to the humanity of the British Parliament, to reflect on the innumerable hardships which must ensue, and the uni-verfal confufion which must be occafioned, as well to perfonal rights 'as to public and private property, by giving to the voluminous and intricate laws of England a boundless retrospective power in the midft of Afia, and by an application of those laws, made for the freest and most enlightened people upon earth, the principle, of whofe conftitution is founded in virtue and liberty, to tranfactions with the natives of India, who have, from time immemorial, lived under a defpotic government, eftablished on fear and reftraint: and your petitioners moft earnelly call upon you to confider what must be the fears, what must be the errors, of individuals, to find their titles to property, their tranfactions and engagements with natives previous to the establishment of the court of judicature, tried by the standard of English law, and by men educated under its forms, and unavoidably imbibing its prejudices, when no fuch laws could be known to or practised by natives or Europeans then refiding in the country, and at a time too when few or no perfons of legal knowledge were in the country to affist or advise them.

Your petitioners humbly conceive, that no tyranny can be more dreadful in its operations, or more fatal in its confequences, than that a court, established by law, with all the authority of one of the first courts in England, fhould alfo poffefs undefined powers and jurisdiction, of which the judges of it are the fole interpreters, and under no controul but at the immenfe diftance of the mother country; yet fuch is the fituation of your petitioners, they are placed within the reach of this two-edged weapon, furrounded with the toils and pitfalls of the law in a country where perjury is almoft a profeffion, unknowing where they may reft in fafety, for the judges of this court can at plea❤ fure determine on the denomination of a civil injury, the degree of its criminality, by what ftatutes it fhall be tried, what penalties thall be inflicted, and who are, and who are not, amenable to the jurisdiction

of the court. The judges have declared, that they are, by the charter of justice, empowered to moderate the laws of England by the cuftoms of this country; but their information respecting these customs can only be obtained from such witnesses as appear before them, and it is in the breafts of the judges to admit or reject what evidence they pleafe. This power has filled your petitioners with the utmost terror and difmay; if it had remained with a body of jurors, acquainted with the language of the natives, informed as to their customs, and bound by oath to decide with truth and justice, there would have existed no foundation for either.

Your petitioners perceived, with heart-felt fatisfaction, that the faid at had provided fome barrier against oppreflion, by authorizing an appeal from the decrees of the fupreme court to his Majesty in council, which his Majefty has also been moft graciously pleafed to recognize in his charter of justice; but the hopes of relief, raised upon this foundation, vanished from before us, when your petitioners found that the judges of the court had not only taken upon themselves to make and alter the rules of it, but that they could receive or refufe what evidence they thought proper, and that the appeal could only be heard under these rules and upon the evidence recorded during the trial, removed at such a vast distance from the tribunal of justice, before an unjuft or illegal fentence could be reverfed, the fufferer might fall a victim to penury, or perish by imprisonment: but, from an appeal under fuch circumftances, what redrefs can your petitioners obtain ?

Your petitioners entertain all becoming refpect for the authority of the charter of justice, and the utmost reverence for their Sovereign, whofe fanction it has received: yet they cannot but obferve that, by the powers delegated in this charter,, men are conftituted the judges of their own acts, which appears to your petitioners highly improper and inconfiftent: for the judges of the fupreme court in Calcutta are impowered to fit also as a court of chancery, and in this capacity to revife, correct, refcind, or confirm, decifions paffed by themselves whilst acting as judges in a court of law; and by another part of their infti. tution, they poffefs the power, and they alone, of staying execution in criminal cafes, till his Majefty's pleasure be known. There is a principle in human nature which inevitably impresses a bias upon the mind in favour of its own decifions, and experience has decided that reafon and philofophy are too weak to reftrain it; but in all well-regulated communities, when the confequences of any principle are forefeen, or found to be fatal, the wisdom of the legiflature interpofes, to check its operation. Your petitioners have the most perfect conviction, that the poffible evils of this power did not occur to their most merciful Sovereign when his approbation was conferred to the charter of juftice, and that they require only to be pointed out to enfure redress.

Your petitioners, with all deference, conceive that there must be fome fundamental error in that inftitution, which requires a more than ordinary degree of temper, ability, and integrity, to carry its purpofes into execution and they do not hesitate to declare, that to adminifter the powers appertaining to the inftitution of the fupreme court, with

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7

out extenfive public detriment and partial acts of private severity and injustice (if it be poffible at all) requires more equity and moderation, difcernment and enlightened abilities, than they can hope to find in any men to what extent the judges of his Majefty's court may pof fefs thefe qualities, your petitioners do not pretend to decide, and fill lefs to affert that they do not poffefs them at all, but they complain of the jurifdiction of the uncontrouled and unlimited powers with which the court is vefted, and with the execution of which no men are to be trufted.

Your petitioners can bear distress like men, but they must also feel like men, and speak these feelings like Englishmen; if the language of complaint is warm, let it be attributed to the dread of future injuries; from a keen fenfibility of what is past, your petitioners claim a trial by Jury as their birth-right, and they folicit to be relieved from the other great grievances they labour under. To a British Houfe of Commons they appeal, with the firmeft reliance on its wisdom, justice, and humanity, and in appealing to such a tribunal, they perceive their apprehenfions yield to the moft flattering hopes of a fpeedy redress.

Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray, that you will be pleased to take into confideration the following requests:

To grant a trial by jury in all cafes where it is by law established in England:

To limit the retrospective powers of the court to the time of it eftablishment in Bengal:

To define, beyond the power of discretional distinction, the perfons who are, and who are not, amenable to the jurisdiction of the court ; To declare what ftatutes fhall, and what ftatutes fhall not, be in force in Bengal:

To direct and circumfcribe the power of the court, in the admiffion and rejection of evidence, fo as that all rejected evidence may accompany the appeal, by way of affidavit, or otherwise.

To appoint diftin&t and separate judges for the law and equity fide: of the court:

To restore the ancient and conftitutional power of hearing appeals in the first instance to the fupreme authority in this government, formerly vefted in the prefident and council, and now vefted in the governor general, and council :

To lodge a power of staying executions in criminal cafes (till his Majefty's pleasure be known) in the governor general, and council: And your petitioners fhall ever pray, &c.

That the petitioners are ready to produce, at the bar of this honourable Houfe, the copy of the faid petition, fo authenticated as aforefaid, tranfmitted to them from Calcutta, and humbly pray the Houfe to take the contents of the fame into their confideration, and to grant fuch relief in the premises as to the Houfe fhall feem fit.

Ordered to lie upon the table.

A petition of Warren Haftings, efquire, governor general, and of Philip Francis and Edward Wheeler, efquires, counsellors for the government of the prefidency of Fort William in Bengal, was prefented to the House, and read, fetting forth, that, by an act of the thirteenth

of