Impeachment
He was impeached for crimes and misdemeanors during his time in India in the House of Commons upon his return to England. At first deemed unlikely to succeed, the prosecution was managed by MPs including Edmund Burke, Charles James Fox and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. When the charges of his indictment were read, the twenty counts took Edmund Burke two full days to read.
The house sat for a total of 148 days over a period of seven years during the investigation. The investigation was pursued at great cost to Hastings personally, and he complained constantly that the cost of defending himself from the prosecution was bankrupting him. He is rumoured to have once stated that the punishment given him would have been less extreme had he pleaded guilty. The House of Lords finally made its decision on April 1795 acquitting him on all charges.
Throughout the long years of the trial, Hastings lived in considerable style at his town house, Somerset House, Park Lane. Among the many who supported him in print was the pamphleteer and versifier Ralph Broome. Others disturbed by the perceived injustice of the proceedings included Fanny Burney.
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