Phousdar should not be examined on oath; that the charge was not against
himself; and that, if any questions had been put to him, tending to make
him accuse himself, he might have declined to answer them. That, if he
could have safely sworn to the innocence of the said Warren Hastings,
from whom he received his employment, he was bound in gratitude as well
as justice to the said Warren Hastings to have consented to be examined
on oath; that, not having done so, and having been supported and abetted
in his refusal by the said Warren Hastings himself, whose character and
honor, were immediately at stake, the whole of the evidence for the
truth of the charge remains unanswered, and in full force against the
said Warren Hastings, who on this occasion recurred to the declaration
he had before made to the Directors, viz., "that he would most fully and
liberally explain every circumstance of his conduct," but has never
since that time given the Directors any explanation whatsoever of his
said conduct. And finally, that, when the Court of Directors, in
January, 1776, referred the question (concerning the legality of the
power assumed and repeatedly exercised by the said Warren Hastings, of
dissolving the Council at his pleasure) to the late Charles Sayer, then
standing counsel of the East India Company, the said Charles Sayer
declared his opinion in favor of the power, but concerning the use and
exercise of it in the cases stated did declare his opinion in the
following words: "I believe he, Warren Hastings, is the first governor
that ever dissolved a council inquiring into his behavior, when he was
innocent." Before he could summon three councils, and dissolve them, he
had time fully to consider what would be the result of such conduct, _to
convince everybody beyond a doubt of his conscious guilt_.--That, by a
resolution of a majority of the Council, constituting a lawful act of
the Governor-General and Council, the said Khân Jehan Khân was dismissed
from the office of Phousdar of Hoogly for a contempt of the authority of
the board; that, within a few weeks after the death of the late Colonel