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begun to entertain the opinion, that the prodigious property embarked in all the concerns relating to the West Indies, would operate as an insurmountable obstacle to the de sign of tying up the hands of the planters in the management of these distant possessions on their own plan.

A decision, long looked for with still more impatience, was that relating to the conduct of Mr. Hastings, in the East Indies. This tedious business had now lasted seven years, to the great diminution of his fortune, and at a large expence to the public. This protraction was considered as unnecessary, and occasioned hea. vy complaints, not only from Mr. Hastings himself, but from the ge. nerality of people, who thought, that the forms of justice were un duly lengthened, and that a sentence of condemnation or of ab. solution might, and ought, there. fore, to have passed long before this time. The defence which he drew up and presented to the lords, in Westminster-hall, was written with great eloquence and ability, and made a strong impression in his favour. He was solemnly acquitted of every charge brought against him. Out of twenty-nine peers, who pro. nounced judgment on this occasion, twenty-three declared him inno. But the costs of this expensive trial would have proved a grievous load to him, and too heavy to be borne, had not the East. India company, with a spirit

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of gratitude, greatly to their credit, taken upon them to discharge the whole, amounting to upwards of seventy thousand pounds. company also avoided the disgrace of leaving so meritorious a servant in indigence, by a moderate pecuniary donation. He retired from the perilous situation wherein he so long had stood, with an injured constitution: but with a reputation not only unimpaired, but, not. withstanding the indefatigable attempts to ruin him in the esteem of the public, confirmed and exalted.

The trial of such a character, political and private, as Mr. Hastings, whose services had so often received the sanction of public approbation and grateful applause, and which, in fact, had proved, in a crisis of the utmost alarm, the salvation of his coun. try*-the trial of such a man, protracted to such an enormous length of time, was a novelty in the history of England, and deeply fixed the attention, as well as the wonder of foreign nations : to the principal of whom, the merits of Mr. Hastings appeared to be better known than to his own countrymen. That one who had deserved so well of his country should be stretched so long on the rack of " the law's delay," and that this should be so long borne by a generous nation, appeared utterly astonishing to nations but little acquainted with the tedious formalities that are incident to processes under free

For an account of the manner in which the exertions of Mr. Hastings saved his country, by enabling the English minister, as he acknowledged, to make the peace of 1783, and also of the intrigues and cabals that gave birth to the impeachment of Mr. Hastings, see Memoirs of the late War in Asia.

governments, governments, and to all who do not reflect, that much of what may appear blameable to foreign nations and other ages, is often shaded and softened to the eye of the contemporary, which looses sight of the whole scene, sees it only, as it were, in fragments; and these too diminished and distorted by the intrusion of a thousand other circumstances and concerns that constantly solicit the attentions of self-love, and soon blunt our sorrow at the sufferings of others, when long continued, by the very means that should heighten our sympathetic affection. Amidst the thickest vapour, the traveller still enjoys light enough to see the nearest objects, and calls it only a mist; but the distant spectator views it as dark and portentous cloud.

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But there was no period, even when the accusations against Mr. Hastings were the loudest, and before the time was come for reply, in which a general sympa. thy and concern for his state was wholly lost or suspended in candid and impartial breasts. The violence mixed with the oratory made use of against him, served, in some measure, as an antidote to the gall from whence it sprung. The true motives that urged on the impeachment became general. ly suspected. The sentence pronounced by the highest court in the kingdom, in favour of Mr. Hastings, was universally gratulated with sincere joy. Men rejoiced to find, that the integrity of the late governor general had been proved equal to his abilities. The impressions that were made on the

public mind by the trial of Mr. Hastings, in its different stages, are faithfully described in a preface to a publication, which gives an account of many curious cir. cumstances relating to the origin, progress, and, issue, of the trial, and also suggests not a few im. portant reflexions on the whole. It is "The History of the Trial of Warren Hastings, Esq. containing the whole of the proceedings and debates in both houses of parliament relating to that celebrated prosecu. tion.

"From the moment that an impeachment of Mr. Hastings was agreed on by the house of com. mons, the editor of the present compilation determined to mark the progress, and to collect and to preserve every document and memorial, in any material degree connected with a trial so new in its nature, so various and exten. sive in its relations, and that might probably, in its issue, produce the most important, though unknown, consequences. The industry with which he has executed this plan will be readily acknowledged. To some, perhaps, it may appear to have been carried to excess; but, of most of the papers he has preserved, a little reflection will discover some purpose either of utility or entertain. ment, and future conjunctures will, no doubt, as usual, by opening a wider sphere of relation, constitute and disclose new ways in which these fugitive pieces may contribute to the instruction of the civilian and the historian, and the amusement of the future antiquarian: to the lawyer it is a record record of judicial precedents, re. ports, and decisions: to the his torian it presents, collaterally, a wider field of political intrigue and military operation than had entered, at any former period, into the British history: and, to future antiquaries, many interest. ing anecdotes relating to persons who not only make a figure in the present shifting scene, but whose names may penetrate into times to come. But it is not to future antiquaries only that the pieces here collected, not neces sarily though naturally connected with the trial, will appear inte. resting-the greater part of them, we doubt not, will please general readers of the present times.

"This trial derives still higher consequence from its connexion and influence in our political sys. tem. It has served, in its com. mencement, progress, and termination, to define the political situa. tion of this country with respect to India; to give greater preci. sion to her maxims both of policy and jurisprudence in that country; to ascertain the line of conduct that may be pursued, on various emergencies, by the civil and military officers of the com. pany and the crown; and, on the whole, in various ways to conso. lidate the British empire in Hin. dostan.

"Thus far it is particularly in. teresting to every subject of Bri. tain; but especially to all who have any share in the British go. vernment. But it is not either as a gratification of curiosity, a directory to lawyers, a source of information to historians, and of instruction to politicians and the

executive government in all its branches, that this trial is chiefly interesting-it- possesses an interest of a kind still more noble and affecting. In a moral view, it is interesting to all men, and all ages, to whom a good man, strug. gling with adversity, can never be an object of indifference-a good man, after saving his country by the brightest exertions of genius as well as public virtue, attacked by private malignity, com. bined with political intrigue; un. usual merit followed by un rece. dented persecution and hardships.

"Mr. Hastings is a man of gen. tle manners, and of an elegant mind. From his earliest years he has been devoted to study, and to the service of his country. In private life he has uniformly dis. played universal benevolence to all around him, as well as most exemplary moderation in the go vernment of his own passionsin the public characters in which he was successively employed, the most impartial justice. His mind, active and comprehensive at all times, rose with an elastic force under every pressure; and, conse. quently, his talents and virtues shone forth with the greatest splen. dor, in times of difficulty and dana ger. In 1778, at a crisis preg nant with danger and full of alarm, he pursued those measures which the impending calamities required. In another hemisphere, and among nations governed by other religions, customs and laws, he maintained the British domi nion in India, by means exactly of the same kind with those that acquired them, and by which alone it was possible to maintain them.

It has been justly observed, on the subject of legislation, that what is metaphysically true may be, in that very proportion, politically false;" and that, in all cases, respect should be had to times and circumstances. It could scarcely be expected that Mr. Hastings, in circumstances that admit of great latitude of conduct in Europe, should attempt to wea. ther a storm in India by an European compass. Without violating the usages and laws of Asia, he com. bined and directed a large military force for the preservation of our Asiatic settlements.

"The confederacy of Europe with America; the eruption of Hyder into the Carnatic; the flight of sir Thomas Rumbold from Madras; the supineness and imbecility of his suc. cessors in that presidency; the de. feat of the British army under sir Hector Munro; the excision of colonel Baillie's detachment: all these circumstances of improvi. dence, disgrace, and disaster, struck a temporary panic, and, for a time, unnerved the heart, and unstrung the arm. He who was the first in mind, as in station, to whom every anxious and imploring eye was now turned, did not disappoint the fond hopes and expectations of his countrymen. From the centre of Calcutta an energy was diffused throughout the whole of the British settlements in Hindostan. The governor-general displayed a dignity and elevation of mind that seemed to carry him wholly out of himself, and to sink every private interest and concern in the grand pursuits of public spirit. And, in the midst of an unremitting struggle with the most odious and rancorous oppo

sition (springing, indeed, partly from a hectic irritability of temper) that was ever made to any system, he conducted the war at last to a prosperous and glorious issue..

"Such is Mr. Hastings; whom neither innocence, nor virtue, nor talents, nor complete and brilliant success in the most arduous as well as important enterprise, was able to save from a prosecution not more surprising in its origin than wonder ful in its conduct; which, when we reflect on the spirit that dictated, perplexed, and protracted it, may be called, in the emphatic language of the sacred Scriptures, a FIERY TRIAL; and of which it may be remarked, that never was trial more unmerited, so long protracted, or so completely triumphant over such a combination of learning, ability, and political power.

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The public mind, by the obtrusion of never ceasing assertion, was stunned into an apprehension that the late governor-general might not be found so free as was gene rally wished, from all ground and shadow of reproach. Year passed on after year, and a degree of sus. picion was followed by a greater degree of indifference to the matter at issue.

"At last men began to wonder that where accusation was so loud, proof should be so feeble; and public opinion, that had been the slowest to give any degree of credit to his accusers, formed the first and most certain presage of his acquittal.

"Every thing in human affairs is mixed. Good is blended, and depends, in some measure, for its very essence, on evil. But the ways of Providence, though mysterious, are

* See Mr. Burke's Letter on the State of France.

just. just. The cause of temporary afHiction, has consigned the name of Hastings to immortal honour, by incorporating his life and actions with the juridical as well as the political and military history of his country. The charges brought against Mr. Hastings are not now to be con. sidered as misfortunes, but as difficulties that have proved and cn. nobled his virtues.

It deserves to be recorded, in justice to the feelings of human nature, as well as a testimony to the merit of Mr. Hastings, that a great number of writers, both at home and abroad, appeared as volunteers in his cause, sometimes for the express purpose, and at others collate. rally, in writing on other subjects*. A like observation may be extended to the steady ardour with which Mr.

• In one of the literary and political journals of the times, which, from the beginning of the trial to the end, had occasionally animadverted on the conduct of all the members of the coalition against Mr. Hastings with the utmost freedom, we find the following congratulation on the acquittal of Mr. Hastings:

"We heartily congratulate our countrymen in every part of the world, and indeed all good men, on the honourable acquittal of Mr. Hastings, a man whose whole life, as we have had formerly occasion to observe, has been one continued scene of public service, public honour, and public prosecution. When Socrates, being accused of crimes and misdemeanors against the state, was asked if he did not intend to avail himself of the pleadings of orators in his behalf, which was freely offered, he said, that he did not intend to offer any other defence than that which the whole tenor and course of his life afforded; and on this ground he was contented to plead his own cause. On this ground, too, Mr. Hastings might have defended himself: for, although he might have failed to unravel the nets woven for catching him, by the combined talents of opposite parties, he would have satisfied the world, and all poste rity, of his innocence and egregious merit: and although he might, for the want of such aid for extrication, have been found guilty in Westminster-Hall, the fine in which he would have been amerced would not have amounted to the third part of what his legal defence cost him. Justice is not yet completed to Mr. Hastings by his country. The glory of invincible fortitude and patience may perhaps compensate for ten years of trouble and suspense, but cannot make up for an impaired fortune, never more than moderate." - English Review, Vo) XXV. p. 320.

In the same journat the following criticism, both on the preface to the compilation respecting the trial, and the whole character and conduct of Mr. Hastings, appeared in the number for April, 1796. The writer of the preface, in his account of the compilation that forms his subject, rises, by a very natural and easy climax, from its subserviency to the purposes of the civilian, the politician, the antiquarian of future times, and the historian, to the interest which human nature, in all times and places, takes in a good man struggling with adversity, and a vindication of the ways of God to man. In this view the trial of Mr. Hastings may be considered in the light of an heroic poem, whether of the epic or dramatic kind, the grand moral or end of which, is, to illustrate the patient fortitude that arises from the consciousness of innocence

and virtue.

There is an active and there is a passive fortitude: the latter not certainly less, but, in some respects, superior to the former. It was this species of fortitude that distinguished the hero of the sublimest poem that ever was composedt; it was this kind of fortitude that proved the Son of God in the desert, which Milton has made the subject of the Paradise Regained; in the bloody sweat in the garden; in mount Calvary; and on the cross.

It has been Mr. Hastings's fate to have had singular opportunities of displaying both active and passive fortitude: the former in his conduct in India; the latter in the trial to which that conduct doomed him at home.

• And on that day Herod and Pilate became friends. Mat. xxvii.

f. Sce Dr. Lowth's Dissertations on the sacred Hebrew Poetry, where he discoursce on the Book of Job, VOL. XXXVII.

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