His counsel accompanied him, men all of whom were afterwards raised by their talents and learning to the highest posts in their profession, the bold and

There were seated round the Queen | pulled down princes. And in his high the fair-haired young daughters of the place he had so borne himself, that all house of Brunswick. There the Am- had feared him, that most had loved bassadors of great Kings and Com- him, and that hatred itself could deny monwealths gazed with admiration on him no title to glory, except virtue. a spectacle which no other country in He looked like a great man, and not the world could present. There Sid- like a bad man. A person small and dons, in the prime of her majestic emaciated, yet deriving dignity from a beauty, looked with emotion on a scene carriage which, while it indicated desurpassing all the imitations of the ference to the court, indicated also stage. There the historian of the Ro- habitual self-possession and self-respect, man Empire thought of the days when a high and intellectual forehead, a Cicero pleaded the cause of Sicily brow pensive, but not gloomy, a mouth against Verres, and when, before a of inflexible decision, a face pale and senate which still retained some show worn, but serene, on which was written, of freedom, Tacitus thundered against as legibly as under the picture in the the oppressor of Africa. There were council-chamber at Calcutta, Mens seen, side by side, the greatest painter æqua in arduis; such was the aspect and the greatest scholar of the age. with which the great Proconsul preThe spectacle had allured Reynolds sented himself to his judges. from that easel which has preserved to us the thoughtful foreheads of so many writers and statesmen, and the sweet smiles of so many noble matrons. It had induced Parr to suspend his la-strong-minded Law, afterwards Chief bours in that dark and profound mine Justice of the King's Bench; the more from which he had extracted a vast humane and eloquent Dallas, aftertreasure of erudition, a treasure too wards Chief Justice of the Common often buried in the earth, too often Pleas; and Plomer who, near twenty paraded with injudicious and inelegant | years later, successfully conducted in ostentation, but still precious, massive, the same high court the defence of and splendid. There appeared the Lord Melville, and subsequently bevoluptuous charms of her to whom the came Vice-chancellor and Master of heir of the throne had in secret plighted the Rolls. his faith. There too was she, the beautiful mother of a beautiful race, the Saint Cecilia, whose delicate features, lighted up by love and music, art has rescued from the common decay. There were the members of that brilliant society which quoted, criticized, and exchanged repartees, under the rich peacock hangings of Mrs. Montague. And there the ladies whose lips, more persuasive than those of Fox himself, had carried the Westminster election against palace and treasury, shone round Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire.

The Serjeants made proclamation. Hastings advanced to the bar, and bent his knee. The culprit was indeed not unworthy of that great presence. He had ruled an extensive and populous country, had made laws and treaties, had sent forth armies, had set up and

But neither the culprit nor his advocates attracted so much notice as the accusers. In the midst of the blaze of red drapery, a space had been fitted up with green benches and tables for the Commons. The managers, with Burke at their head, appeared in full dress. The collectors of gossip did not fail to remark that even Fox, generally so regardless of his appearance, had paid to the illustrious tribunal the compliment of wearing a bag and sword. Pitt had refused to be one of the conductors of the impeachment; and his commanding, copious, and sonorous eloquence was wanting to that great muster of various talents. Age and blindness had unfitted Lord North for the duties of a public prosecutor; and his friends were left without the help of his excellent sense, his tact and his urbanity. But in spite of the absence

of these two distinguished members of of the court, a near relation of the

the Lower House, the box in which amiable poet. On the third day Burke the managers stood contained an array rose. Four sittings were occupied by of speakers such as perhaps had not his opening speech, which was intended appeared together since the great age to be a general introduction to all the of Athenian eloquence. There were charges. With an exuberance of Fox and Sheridan, the English De- thought and a splendour of diction mosthenes and the English Hyperides. which more than satisfied the highly There was Burke, ignorant, indeed, or raised expectation of the audience, he negligent of the art of adapting his described the character and institutions reasonings and his style to the capacity of the natives of India, recounted the and taste of his hearers, but in ampli- circumstances in which the Asiatic tude of comprehension and richness of empire of Britain had originated, and imagination superior to every orator, set forth the constitution of the Comancient or modern. There, with eyes pany and of the English Presidencies. reverentially fixed on Burke, appeared Having thus attempted to communithe finest gentleman of the age, his cate to his hearers an idea of Eastern form developed by every manly exer- society, as vivid as that which existed cise, his face beaming with intelligence in his own mind, he proceeded to arand spirit, the ingenious, the chivalrous, raign the administration of Hastings the high-souled Windham. Nor, as systematically conducted in dethough surrounded by such men, did fiance of morality and public law. the youngest manager pass unnoticed. The energy and pathos of the great At an age when most of those who orator extorted expressions of unwonted distinguish themselves in life are still admiration from the stern and hostile contending for prizes and fellowships Chancellor, and, for a moment, seemed at college, he had won for himself a to pierce even the resolute heart of conspicuous place in parliament. No the defendant. The ladies in the galadvantage of fortune or connection was leries, unaccustomed to such displays wanting that could set off to the height of eloquence, excited by the solemnity his splendid talents and his unble- of the occasion, and perhaps not unmished honour. At twenty-three he willing to display their taste and sensihad been thought worthy to be ranked bility, were in a state of uncontrollable with the veteran statesmen who ap-emotion. Handkerchiefs were pulled peared as the delegates of the British out; smelling bottles were handed Commons, at the bar of the British round; hysterical sobs and screams nobility. All who stood at that bar, were heard and Mrs. Sheridan was save him alone, are gone, culprit, ad-carried out in a fit. At length the vocates, accusers. To the generation orator concluded. Raising his voice which is now in the vigour of life, he till the old arches of Irish oak reis the sole representative of a great sounded, "Therefore," said he, “hath age which has passed away. But those it with all confidence been ordered, by who, within the last ten years, have the Commons of Great Britain, that I listened with delight, till the morning impeach Warren Hastings of high sun shone on the tapestries of the crimes and misdemeanours. I imHouse of Lords, to the lofty and ani- peach him in the name of the Commons' mated eloquence of Charles Earl Grey, House of Parliament, whose trust he are able to form some estimate of the has betrayed. I impeach him in the powers of a race of men among whom name of the English nation, whose anhe was not the foremost. cient honour he has sullied. I impeach The charges and the answers of him in the name of the people of India, Hastings were first read. The cere- whose rights he has trodden under foot, mony occupied two whole days, and and whose country he has turned into was rendered less tedious than it would a desert. Lastly, in the name of human otherwise have been by the silver voice nature itself, in the name of both sexes, and just emphasis of Cowper, the clerk | in the name of every age, in the name

The interest taken by the public in The trial in the Hall went on lanthe trial was great when the Court be- guidly. In the session of 1788, when

the proceedings had the interest of trial of Hastings to a close in less than novelty, and when the Peers had little three months. The Lords had not other business before them, only thirty- finished their work in seven years. five days were given to the impeachment. In 1789, the Regency Bill occupied the Upper House till the session was far advanced. When the King recovered the circuits were beginning. The judges left town; the Lords waited for the return of the oracles of jurisprudence; and the consequence was that during the whole year only seventeen days were given to the case of Hastings. It was clear that the matter would be protracted to a length unprecedented in the annals of criminal law.

The result ceased to be matter of doubt, from the time when the Lords resolved that they would be guided by the rules of evidence which are received in the inferior courts of the realm. Those rules, it is well known, exclude much information which would be quite sufficient to determine the conduct of any reasonable man, in the most important transactions of private life. These rules, at every assizes, save scores of culprits whom judges, jury, and spectators, firmly believe to be guilty. But when those rules were rigidly applied to offences committed many years before, at the distance of many thousands of miles, conviction was, of course, out of the question. We do not blame the accused and his counsel for availing themselves of every legal advantage in order to obtain an acquittal. But it is clear that an acquittal so obtained cannot be pleaded in bar of the judgment of history.

In truth, it is impossible to deny that impeachment, though it is a fine ceremony, and though it may have been useful in the seventeenth century, is not a proceeding from which much good can now be expected. Whatever confidence may be placed in the decision of the Peers on an appeal arising out of ordinary litigation, it is certain that no man has the least confidence in their impartiality, when a great Several attempts were made by the public functionary, charged with a friends of Hastings to put a stop to the great state crime, is brought to their trial. In 1789 they proposed a vote of bar. They are all politicians. There censure upon Burke, for some violent is hardly one among them whose vote language which he had used respecting on an impeachment may not be con- the death of Nuncomar and the confidently predicted before a witness has nection between Hastings and Impey. been examined; and, even if it were Burke was then unpopular in the last possible to rely on their justice, they degree both with the House and with would still be quite unfit to try such a the country. The asperity and incause as that of Hastings. They sit decency of some expressions which only during half the year. They have he had used during the debates on the to transact much legislative and much | Regency had annoyed even his warmest judicial business. The law-lords, whose friends. The vote of censure was caradvice is required to guide the un-ried; and those who had moved it learned majority, are employed daily hoped that the managers would resign in administering justice elsewhere. It in disgust. Burke was deeply hurt. is impossible, therefore, that during a But his zeal for what he considered as busy session, the Upper House should the cause of justice and mercy triumgive more than a few days to an im- phed over his personal feelings. He peachment. To expect that their Lord-received the censure of the House with ships would give up partridge-shooting, in order to bring the greatest delinquent to speedy justice, or to relieve accused innocence by speedy acquittal, would be unreasonable indeed. A well constituted tribunal, sitting regularly six days in the week, and nine hours in the day, would have brought the

dignity and meekness, and declared that no personal mortification or humiliation should induce him to flinch from the sacred duty which he had undertaken.

In the following year the Parliament was dissolved; and the friends of Hastings entertained a hope that the new