make in the heart! violating the attachments and the decorums of life! sacrificing every emotion of tenderness and honour! and flagitiously levelling all the distinctions of national characteristics! with a long catalogue of crimes and aggravations, beyond the reach of thought for human malignity to perpetrate, or human vengeance to punish!

It might have been hoped, for the honour of the human heart, that the Begums had been themselves exempted from a share in these sufferings; and that they had been wounded only through the sides of their ministers. The reverse of this, however, was the fact. Their palace was surrounded by a guard, which was withdrawn by Major Gilpin, to avoid the growing resentments of the people, and replaced by Mr. Middleton, through his fears from that "dreadful responsibility" which was imposed on him by Mr. Hastings. The women of the Khord Mahal, who had not been involved in the Begums' supposed crimes; who had raised no sub-rebellion of their own; and who, it had been proved, lived in a distinct dwelling, were causelessly involved in the same punishment; their residence surrounded with guards, they were driven to despair by famine, and when they poured forth in sad procession, were driven back by the soldiery, and beaten with bludgeons to the scene of madness which they had quitted. These were acts, Mr. Sheridan observed, which, when told, needed no comment; he should not offer a single syllable to awaken their lordships' feelings; but leave it to the facts which had been proved, to make their own impressions.

The argument now reverted solely to this point, whether Mr. Hastings was to be answerable for the crimes committed by his agent? It had been fully proved that Mr. Middleton had signed the treaty with the superior Begum in October, 1778. He had acknowledged signing some others of other dates, but could not recollect his authority. These treaties had been fully recognized by Mr. Hastings, as was fully proved by the evidence of Mr. Purling, in the year 1780. In that of October, 1778, the jaghire was secured which was allotted for the support of the women in the Khord Mahal: on the first idea of resuming these jaghires a provision should have been secured to those unfortunate women; and in this respect Mr. Hastings was clearly guilty of a crime, by his omission of making such provision.

But still he pleaded, that he was not accountable for the cruelties which had been exercised. This was the plea which Tyranny, aided by its prime minister Treachery, was always sure to set up. Mr. Middleton had attempted to strengthen this plea by endeavouring to claim the whole infamy of those transactions, and to monopolize the guilt! He dared even to aver that he had been condemned by Mr. Hastings for the ignominious part he had acted he dared to avow this, because Mr. Hastings was on his trial, and he thought he should never be tried ;-but in the face of the court, and before he left the bar he was compelled to confess that it was for the lenience, not the severity of his proceedings, that he had been reproved by Mr. Hastings.

It would not, he trusted, be argued, that because Mr. Hastings had not marked every passing shade of guilt, and because he had only given the bold outline of cruelty, that he was therefore to be acquitted. It was laid down by the law of England -that law which was the perfection of reason—that a person ordering an act to be done by his agent, was answerable for that act with all its consequences. Middleton had been appointed, in 1777, the avowed and private agent-the second-self of Mr. Hastings. The governor-general had ordered the measure: Middleton declared that it could not have been effected by milder means. Even if he never saw, nor heard afterwards of the consequences of the measure, he was answerable for every pang that was inflicted, and for all the blood that was shed. But he had heard, and that instantly, of the whole. He had written to arraign Middleton of forbearance and of neglect! He commanded them to work upon their hopes and fears, and to leave no means untried, until-to speak their own language, but which would be better suited to the banditti of a cavern they obtained possession of the secret hoards of the old ladies." He would not allow even of a delay of two days to smoothe the compelled approaches of a son to his mother, on such an occasion! His orders were peremptory; and if a massacre did not take place, it was the merit of accident, and not of Mr. Hastings. After this would it be said, that the prisoner was ignorant of the acts, or not culpable for their consequences? It was true, he had not enjoined in so many words the guards, the famine, and the bludgeons; he had not weighed the fetters, nor numbered the lashes to be inflicted on his victims. But yet he was equally

guilty, as if he had borne an active and personal share in each transaction. It was, as if he had commanded that the heart should be torn from the bosom, and yet had enjoined that no blood should follow. He was in the same degree accountable to the law, to his country, to his conscience, and to his God!

Mr. Hastings had endeavoured also to get rid of a part of his guilt, by observing that he was but one of the supreme council, and that all the rest had sanctioned those transactions with their approbation. If Mr. Hastings could prove, however, that others participated in the guilt, it would not tend to diminish his own criminality. But the fact was, that the council had in nothing erred so much as in a criminal credulity given to the declarations of the governor-general. They knew not a word of those transactions until they were finally concluded. It was not until the January following that they saw the mass of falsehood which had been published under the title of "Mr. Hastings's Narrative." They had been then unaccountably duped into the suffering a letter to pass, dated the 29th of November, intended to deceive the directors into a belief that they had received intelligence at that time, which was not the fact. These observations, Mr. Sheridan said, were not meant to cast any obloquy on the council; they had undoubtedly been deceived, and the deceit practised on them by making them sign the Narrative, was of itself a strong accusation of Mr. Hastings, and a decided proof of his own consciousness of guilt. When tired of corporeal infliction, his tyranny was gratified by insulting the understanding. Other tyrants, though born to greatness, such as a Nero, or a Caligula, might have been roused, it had been supposed, by reflection, and awakened into contrition; but here was an instance which spurned at theory and baffled supposition: a man born to a state at least of equality;-inured to calculation, and brought up in habits of reflection; and yet proving in the end that monster in nature, a deliberate and reasoning tyrant.

The board of directors received those advices which Mr. Hastings thought proper to transmit; but though unfurnished with any other materials to form their judgments, they expressed very strongly their doubts, and as properly ordered an inquiry into the circumstances of the alleged disaffection of the Begums; pronouncing it, at the same time, a debt which was due to the honour and justice of the British nation. This inquiry, how

ever, on the directions reaching India, Mr. Hastings thought it absolutely necessary to elude. He stated to the council, it being merely stated that "if on inquiry certain facts appeared,” no inquiry was thereby directly enjoined ! "It would revive (said he) those animosities that subsisted between the Begums and the vizier, which had then subsided. If the former were inclined to appeal to a foreign jurisdiction, they were the best judges of their own feeling, and should be left to make their own complaint.” All this, however, was nothing to the magnificent paragraph which concluded this minute, and to which Mr. Sheridan also requested the attention of the court. "Beside, (said Mr. Hastings) I hope it will not be a departure from official language to say, that the majesty of justice ought not to be approached without solicitation; she ought not to descend to inflame or provoke, but to withhold her judgment, until she is called on to determine!" What is still more astonishing, is, that Sir John Macpherson, (who, though a gentleman of sense and honour, he stated to be rather Oriental in his imagination, and not learned in the sublime and beautiful, formed the immortal leader of this prosecution, and who had before opposed Mr. Hastings) was caught by this bold bombastic quibble, and joined in the same words, "that the majesty of justice ought not to be approached without solicitation."

But justice is not this halt and miserable object! (continued Mr. Sheridan) it is not the ineffective bauble of an Indian pagod! —it is not the portentous phantom of despair ;-it is not like any fabled monster, formed in the eclipse of reason, and found in some unhallowed grove of superstitious darkness and political dismay! No, my lords!

In the happy reverse of all these, I turn from this disgusting caricature to the real image!-Justice I have now before me, august and pure; the abstract idea of all that would be perfect in the spirits and the aspirings of men!—where the mind rises, where the heart expands;-where the countenance is ever placid and benign-where her favourite attitude is to stoop to the unfortunate-to hear their cry and to help them,-to rescue and relieve, to succour and save :-majestic from its mercy; venerable from its utility uplifted without pride,-firm without obduracy:beneficent in each preference :-lovely, though in her frown!

On that justice I rely; deliberate and sure, abstracted from

all party purpose and political speculations! not in words, but on facts!-You, my lords, who hear me, I conjure by those rights it is your best privilege to preserve; by that fame it is your best pleasure to inherit; by all those feelings which refer to the first term in the series of existence, the original compact of our nature our controlling rank in the creation. This is the call on all to administer to truth and equity, as they would satisfy the laws and satisfy themselves, with the most exalted bliss possible, or conceivable for our nature, -the self-approving consciousness of virtue, when the condemnation we look for will be one of the most ample mercies accomplished for mankind since the creation of the world!

My lords I have done.

The court immediately rose and adjourned to the first Tuesday in the next session of parliament.

JUNE 17.

ROYAL BOROUGHS OF SCOTLAND.

The petitions from the different boroughs of Scotland being read pro forma, MR. SHERIDAN expressed his regret that the unforeseen protraction of other important business had obliged him to defer so long, a subject of such importance, as moving for leave to bring in a bill to regulate the internal government of the royal boroughs of Scotland. He stated his sense of the magnitude of the object to be submitted to the consideration of the house; declaring, at the same time, that he did not deem it necessary to enter into any explanation of what might, at first, appear extraordinary, viz. that such a motion should be brought forward by a person not interested by local connection, or personal habits with the parties whose petitions, for a redress of grievances, were now before the house. The fact was, that every member of that house who had a single right idea of the first principles of the constitution, and of course, of the first cause of the prosperity of the country founded on that constitution, or who felt, as he trusted every member of that house did, an equal and common interest in the happiness and well-being of the two countries comprising the united kingdoms; that every member so judging, and actuated by such a principle, was perfectly competent and qualified to investigate the propositions he should now offer to the consideration of the house. Mr. Sheridan then