CXLVII.-IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.

WARREN HASTINGS was a Governor of the British possessions in India, and was impeached for maladministration.

EDMUND BURKE, who, on the part of the House of Commons, conducted the prosecution of Warren Hastings, was born in 1730. As an orator, politician, and author, he stood high among his cotemporaries. He died in 1797.

1. THE place in which the impeachment of Warren Hastings was conducted, was worthy of such a trial. It was the great hall of William Rufus; the hall, which had resounded with acclamations, at the inauguration of thirty kings; the hall, which had witnessed the just sentence of Bacon, and the just absolution of Somers; the hall, where the eloquence of Stafford had for a moment awed and melted a victorious party inflamed with just resentment; the hall, where Charles had *confronted the High Court of Justice, with the placid courage which half redeemed his fame.

2. Neither military nor civil pomp was wanting. The avenues were lined with grenadiers. The streets were kept clear by cavalry. The peers, robed in gold and ermine, were marshaled by heralds. The judges, in their *vestments of state, attended to give advice on points of law. The long galleries were crowded by such an audience as has rarely excited the fears or emulation of an orator. There, were gathered together, from all points of a great, free, enlightened, and prosperous realm, grace and female loveliness, wit and learning, the representatives of every science and every art.

3. There, were seated around the queen, the fair-haired, young daughters of the house of Brunswick. There, the tembassadors of great kings and commonwealths gazed with admiration on a spectacle which no other country in the world could present. There, Siddons,* in the pride of her majestic beauty, looked with emotion on a scene *surpassing all the imitations of the stage. There, Gibbon, the historian of the Roman Empire, thought of the days when Cicero pleaded the cause of Sicily against Verres; and when, before a senate which had some show of freedom, Tacitus thundered against

A celebrated actress.

the oppressor of Africa; and there too, were seen, side by side, the greatest painter and the greatest scholar of the age; for the spectacle had allured Reynolds from his easel, and Parr from his study.

4. The sergeants 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 pulled down princes; and in his high place he had so borne himself, that all had feared him, that most had loved him, and that hatred itself could deny him no title to glory, except virtue. A person, small and emaciated, yet deriving dignity from a carriage which, while it indicated deference to the court, indicated, also, habitual self-possession and self-respect; a high and intellectual forehead; a brow, pensive, but not gloomy; a mouth of +inflexible decision; a face, pale and worn, but on which a great and well-balanced mind was legibly written: such formed the aspect with which the great proconsul presented himself to his judges.

5. The charges, and the answers of Hastings, were first read. This ceremony occupied two whole days. On the third, Burke rose. Four sittings of the court were occupied by his opening speech, which was intended to be a general introduction to all the charges. With an exuberance of thought and a splendor of diction, which more than satisfied the highly raised expectations of the audience, he described the character and institutions of the natives of India; recounted the circumstances in which the Asiatic Empire of Britain had originated; and set forth the constitution of the Company and of the English Presidencies.

6. Having thus attempted to communicate to his hearers an idea of eastern society, as vivid as that which existed in his own mind, he proceeded to farraign the administration of Hastings, as systematically conducted in defiance of morality and public law. The energy and pathos of the great orator textorted expressions of unwonted admiration from all; and, for a moment, seemed to pierce even the resolute heart of the defendant. The ladies in the galleries, unaccustomed to such displays of eloquence, excited by the solemnity of the occa

sion, and perhaps not unwilling to display their taste and sensibility, were in a state of incontrollable emotion. Handkerchiefs were pulled out; smelling-bottles were handed round; thysterical sobs and screams were heard, and some were even carried out in fits.

7. At length, the orator concluded. Raising his voice, till the old arches of Irish oak resounded- -"Therefore," said he, "hath it in all confidence been ordered by the Commons of Great Britain, that I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of the Commons House of Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose ancient honor he has sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose rights he has trodden under foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert. Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every rank, I impeach the common enemy and oppressor of all.”

CXLVIII. THE MURDER OF PRINCE ARTHUR.

FROM SHAKSPEARE.

King John. Come hither, Hubert. O, my gentle Hubert,
We owe thee much! within this wall of flesh
There is a soul counts thee her creditor,
And with advantage means to pay thy love:
And, my good friend, thy voluntary oath
Lives in this bosom, dearly cherished.
Give me thy hand. I had a thing to say,
But I will fit it with some better time.
In truth, good Hubert, I am almost ashamed
To say what great respect I have for thee.

Hubert. I am much bounden to your majesty.

K. John. Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet,
But thou shalt have; and, creep time, ne'er so slow,
Yet it shall come for me to do thee good.

I had a thing to say,—but let it go:

The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day,
Attended with the pleasures of the world,
Is all too wanton, and too full of gauds,
To give me audience. If the midnight bell
Did, with his iron tongue and brazen mouth,

Sound on into the drowsy race of night,

If this same were a churchyard where we stand,
And thou possessèd with a thousand wrongs:
Or if that surly spirit, melancholy,

Had baked thy blood and made it heavy-thick;
(Which, else, runs tickling up and down the veins,
Making that idiot, laughter, keep men's eyes,
And strain their cheeks to idle merriment,
A passion hateful to my purposes :)

Or if that thou couldst see me without eyes,
Hear me without thine ears, and make reply
Without a tongue, using *conceit alone,
Without eyes, ears, and harmful sound of words;
Then, in despite of brooded, watchful day,
I would into this bosom pour my thoughts:
But, ah, I will not! Yet I love thee well;
And, by my troth, I think thou lovest me well.
Hub. So well, that what you bid me undertake,
Though that my death were adjunct to my act,
I'd do it.

K. John. Do I not know thou wouldst ?

Good Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye

On yon young boy. I'll tell thee what, my friend,

He is a very serpent in my way;

And, wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread,
He lies before me. Dost thou understand me?
Thou art his keeper.

Hub. And I'll keep him so,

That he shall not offend your majesty.

K. John. Death.

Hub. My lord?

K. John. A grave.

Hub. He shall not live.

K. John. Enough.

I could be merry now. Hubert, I love thee;

Well, I'll not say what I intend for thee:
Remember.

CXLIX. THE REMORSE OF KING JOHN.

FROM SHAKSPEARE.

Hubert. My lord, they say five moons were seen to-night:

Four fixed; and the fifth did whirl about

The other four in wonderous motion.

King John. Five moons?

Hub. Old men and +beldams in the streets

Do prophesy upon it dangerously:

Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths:
And when they talk of him, they shake their heads,
And whisper one another in the ear;

And he that speaks doth gripe the hearer's wrist,
While he that hears makes fearful action,

With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes.
I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
The while his iron did on the anvil cool,

With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news;
Who, with his shears and measure in his hand,
Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet,
Told of many thousand warlike French,
That were embattled and ranked in Kent;
Another lean, unwashed artificer

Cuts off his tale and talks of Arthur's death.

K. John. Why seek'st thou to possess me with these fears? Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death?

Thy hand hath murdered him: I had a mighty cause
To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him.

Hub. Had none, my lord? Why, did you not provoke me?
K. John. It is the curse of kings to be attended
By slaves that take their humors for a warrant
To break within the bloody house of life,

And on the winking of authority,

To understand a law, to know the meaning

Of dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns
More upon humor than advised respect.

Hub. Here is your hand and seal for what I did.

K. John. O, when the last account 'twixt heaven and earth

Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal

Witness against us to damnation!

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds

Makes ill deeds done! Hadst not thou been by,

A fellow by the hand of nature marked,

+Quoted and signed to do a deed of shame,
This murder had not come into my mind:
But, taking note of thy tabhorrèd aspect,
Finding thee fit for bloody villainy,
Apt, liable to be employed in danger,
I faintly broke with thee of Arthur's death;