The Trial of Warren Hastings 1789

A contemporary printed graphic shows an interior view of Westminster Hall during the trial of Warren Hastings (1732–1818) in the British House of Commons. As the first Governor General of India (1773–1785), Hastings not only markedly increased the profits that the East India Company made for the crown but also expanded its sphere of power and reorganised the administration. He clashed with the British government because it wanted to limit the company to a purely mercantile function. In 1785, he was accused of abuse of office and blackmail by the Whig politicians Sir Philip Francis (1740–1818) and Edmund Burke (1729–1797) and was only acquitted in 1795.

A view of the tryal of Warren Hastings Esqr. before the Court of Peers in Westminster Hall on an impeachment delivered at the Bar of the House of Lords by the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled February 13, 1788, aquatint etching after a drawing by Edward Dayes (1763–1804), 1789, etching: Robert Pollard (1755-1838), aquatint: Francis Jukes (1745–1812);  source: Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov, Prints and Photographs Division Washington, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pga.03196, no known restrictions on publication.