dertaking, far above his natural strength, which nothing but their support could have enabled him to sustain, and which had nearly exhausted him; and therefore his removal would restore him to a state of ease and tranquillity. The censure of the House of Commons, great and awful as it must be deemed, could not have any deep effect on his mind; if, therefore, it should be passed upon him, he must feel for the honour of the House, rather than for his own. They had appointed him to go up to the bar of the House of Lords with the articles of impeachment: he was sensible of the honour, and had ever since assiduously endeavoured faithfully to discharge the duties of the high trust reposed in him. He had now proceeded to the most important charge, perhaps, in the whole catalogue, that of bribery and corruption; and, in the middle of his speech on that charge, when the prisoner felt himself pinched, and that he was in danger of being immediately overwhelmed, with a policy peculiar to himself, he had resorted to his old arts arts practised by him with so much success in India and shifted his character. He declared that he gave Mr. Hastings full credit for his prudence. He admitted that it was the best step he could possibly take in his present circumstances. He seriously lamented the ridicule that must fall on the House, if such an attempt should be countenanced of making him stand his trial one day in the Commons, and upon the morrow, proceed to Westminster-hall, as a manager and accuser of Warren Hastings on his trial. He was not, he said, young and supple enough for this dancing to the right and to the left; he could not bear it; and he intreated the House to unyoke him.

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He produced the Morning Herald of the last year, which contained the account of the bill made out for the publication of articles sent by Major Scott, and ridiculed the total and several of the items; observing, that the honourable major over the way, who had declared his authorship, had never been able to make him take notice of his productions, because that would have been to have

quitted the great game which he was pursuing, and to have followed vermin. Whether it was from want of taste, or want of curiosity, that he did not read the honourable major's writings, he could not tell; but the fact was, that he had not looked into them. He read an extract of the account which he held in his hand, one of the charges of which was "attacking Mr. Burke's veracity, five shillings and sixpence," and laughed at the idea of his veracity being rated no higher. The shillings total being seven shillings and sixpence, he ridiculed Major Scott's publications as a seven-and-sixpenny matter, and said it had formerly been the custom for all good authors to receive rewards for their literary labours, and he well knew that Professor Robertson and Mr. Hume had large sums for their histories, but Mr. Hastings's writers paid largely to have their writings published. It had been his practice to let them go on and to despise their noise, from the chattering of the jackoo to the roar of the lion.

Mr. Burke then took notice of the defence of Mr. Hastings, delivered in by that gentleman, and afterwards declared to have been written by commission, by Major Scott and Mr. Baker, who drew it up without Mr. Hastings's knowing any thing of it. Mr. Hastings had since disowned and forsworn it. He next proceeded to the explanation which he had promised. He admitted, that he had charged Sir Elijah Impey with the murder of Nundcomar through the instigation of Warren Hastings, and justified it, as being led to it, in stating one of the acts of bribery with the Munny Begum, which bribe passed through the hands of Nundcomar, who was murdered by the deliberate arm of the law. If the House censured a manager, they ought not to hear him a single word more, but they were bound, at the same time, to remove him, when they censured him. He compared the powers given by the Commons to the managers to proceed against Mr. Hastings with the charges without a right to use one extraneous word, to the giving Shylock the power of taking a pound of flesh, upon condition of his not spilling one drop of blood; a

task which neither Jew nor Christian could perform. He entered into an account of the proceedings before the Lords, to shew the necessity he was under, in order to make the business intelligible to them, to narrate the whole history of the country, in doing which, he said, he had to state the revolution which happened, the persons concerned therein, the mock trials and collusive acquittals, which could not fail of representing the whole of Mr. Hastings's conduct to be a tissue of crimes. Mr. Burke concluded with declaring, that he relied implicitly on the justice of the House.

The motion was agreed to without a division. The petition was then brought up; as soon as it had been read,

Mr. BURKE rose and said, that if by his conduct as manager he had drawn honour and applause upon himself, that House, by whose instructions and in whose presence he had opened the charge, in which he had urged the allegations complained of in the petition, were participators in the honour and applause; if, on the other hand, he had incurred disgrace, the House were equally participators in it; since they had heard him make the accusation, without finding the least occasion to check or censure him; and, in fact, it had never appeared to them that he had gone at all into extraneous or improper matter, till the complaint had been brought to them by the agent of Mr. Hastings, the known libeller of that House, who ought to have been expelled long since

Here there was a loud cry of Order! order! Major Scott said, he would not suffer the right honourable gentleman to call him a libeller; though the agent of Mr. Hastings, he sat in that House as independent a man as the right honourable gentleman, and therefore he did not wonder at the House feeling as one man, and calling to order, when so indecent an attack was made upon his character.

Mr. BURKE rose again, and producing the Morning Herald, which contained the bill of charge made to Major

Scott, for the insertion of articles on the subject, said, that he called the honourable gentleman a libeller of the House upon good grounds, since the paper in his hand contained an account of money paid for the publication of libels upon some of the most respectable members in that House, for doing their duty.

After some further conversation, the motion that the petition do lie on the table was agreed to. Major Scott then named Thursday as the day for taking the petition into consideration.

Mr. Marsham asked, whether it was right, on the very day that the managers were to act as accusers of Mr. Hastings before the House of Lords, that they should, as soon as they had finished in Westminster-hall, return to that House and be accused themselves? He remonstrated against what he considered to be the glaring impropriety of making any such order. Mr. Pitt thought Thursday might be the day, and to obviate the honourable gentleman's objection, a message might be sent to the Lords, to desire them to put off the trial till Friday.

Mr. BURKE remonstrated against his being sent to the House of Lords to inform them, that it was necessary to put off the trial of Mr. Hastings till Friday, in order that he might himself be tried first in the House of Commons, at the instance of Major Scott and Mr. Hastings. He said he wished nothing to be done that might be ludicrous in its effect, and cast an air of absurdity upon their proceedings. He stated to the House, that the very same Mr. Hastmeans by which the managers meant to prove ings guilty of the charge, would be necessary for their own defence against the allegations of the petition: that the matter would take up much time, and be found to be exceedingly complex: that the papers necessary to be referred to, in relation to the charge respecting Deby Sing, made five volumes in folio. He said that the putting

the accusers on their trial, at the instance of the party turning the whole prosecution into

accused, was, in effect,

readily consent to any thing but being made ridiculous. He stated the hard treatment the managers had experienced in return for having given up their time, their comfort, their health, and, in short, every thing that was dear to them but their honour and their characters. Such treatment might be sport to Major Scott and Mr. Hastings, but it was death to him and those who acted with him.

At length it was settled, that the petition should be taken into consideration on Thursday the 30th.

April 30.

THE order of the day being read, Mr. Pitt moved, "That a petition having been presented from Warren Hastings, Esq. against a manager of the prosecution, and the name of Edmund Burke, Esq. being mentioned in the said petition, notice is given to that gentleman, now being in his place, that the House will, upon the morrow, take the matter of the said petition into consideration."

Mr. BURKE rose. He said he agreed with the right honourable gentleman, with respect to the regularity of entering the subject on the journals, and also of a formal notice, but it was a ceremony with which he, for his own part, was willing to dispense. He had no objection to the House taking any part, or the whole, of his conduct upon this trial into consideration; he had every reason to confide in the honour of the House; to their decision, he would with all due deference submit. He begged leave to repeat what he had already said in the House, that if they wished to remove him from the management, he was ready and willing to retire; he should at all events wait for the determination of the House, nor should he even attend the discussion of the subject, being determined to suffer judgment to pass by default, if any judgment was to be given. He wished the House to have as little trouble