Page "Charles James Fox" Paragraph 25

In 1787, the most dramatic political event of the decade came to pass in the form of the Impeachment of Warren Hastings, the Governor of Bengal until 1785, on charges of corruption and extortion.

Fifteen of the eighteen Managers appointed to the trial were Foxites, one of them being Fox himself.

Although the matter was really Burke ’ s area of expertise, Fox was, at first, enthusiastic.

If the trial could demonstrate the misrule of British India by Hastings and the East India Company more widely, then Fox ’ s India Bill of 1784 – the point on which the Fox-North Coalition had been dismissed by the King – would be vindicated.

The trial was also expedient for Fox in that it placed Pitt in an uncomfortable political position.

The premier was forced to equivocate over the Hastings trial, because to oppose Hastings would have been to endanger the support of the king and the East India Company, while to openly support him would have alienated country gentlemen and principled supporters like Wilberforce.

However, as the trial's intricacies dragged on ( it would be 1795 before Hastings was finally acquitted ), Fox's interest waned and the burden of managing the trial devolved increasingly on Burke.