of Great Britain in Parliament assembled, whose parliamentary trust he has betrayed.

I impeach him in the name of all the Commons of Great Britain, whose national character he has dishonoured.

I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose laws, rights, and liberties he has subverted; whose properties he has destroyed, whose country he has laid waste and desolate.

I impeach him in the name, and by virtue, of those eternal laws of justice, which he has violated.

I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, which he has cruelly outraged, injured, and oppressed in both sexes, in every age, rank, situation, and condition of life.

AFTER Mr. Burke had concluded these opening speeches, the first article of the impeachment was brought forward on the 22d of February 1788, by Mr. Fox, and supported by Mr. Grey on the 25th. After the evidence upon this article had been adduced, it was summed up and enforced by Mr. Anstruther on the 11th day of April following.

The next article with which the Commons proceeded, was brought forward on the 15th of April 1788, by Mr. Adam, and supported by Mr. Pelham; and the evidence, in part upon the VOL. XIII. second

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second article of charge, was summed up and enforced on the 3d of June, by Mr. Sheridan.

On the 21st of April 1789, Mr. Burke opened the sixth charge, bribery and corruption, in the following speech, which was continued on the 21st of April, and on the 5th and 7th May, in the same session.

TRIAL

OF

WARREN HASTINGS, ESQ.

TUESDAY, 21st APRIL, 1789.

(MR. BURKE.)

MY LORDS,

AN event, which had spread, for a consider

able time, an universal grief and consternation through this kingdom, and which, in its issue, diffused as universal and transcendent a joy, has in the circumstances both of our depression and of our exaltation produced a considerable delay, if not a total suspension of the most important functions of Government.

My Lords, we now resume our office; and we resume it with new and redoubled alacrity, and, we trust, under not less propitious omens than when we left it, in this House, at the end of the preceding Session. We come to this duty with a greater degree of earnestness and zeal, because we are urged to it by many and very peculiar circumstances. This day we come from an House, where the last steps were taken, and, I suppose,

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I suppose, something has happened similar in this, to prepare our way to attend with the utmost solemnity in another place a great national thanksgiving for having restored the Sovereign to his Parliament, and the Parliament to its Sovereign.

But, my Lords, it is not only in the house of prayer, that we offer to the first Cause the acceptable homage of our rational nature-My Lords, in this House, at this bar, in this place, in every place where His commands are obeyed, His worship is performed. And, my Lords, I must boldly say, (and I think I shall hardly be contradicted by your Lordships, or by any persons versed in the Law, which guides us all,) that the highest act of religion, and the highest homage, which we can and ought to pay, is an imitation of the divine perfections as far as such a nature can imitate such perfections; and that by this means alone we can make our homage acceptable to him.

My Lords, in His temple we shall not forget, that His most distinguished attribute is justice, and that the first link in the chain, by which we are held to the Supreme Judge of all, is justice; and that it is in this solemn temple of representative justice we may best give him praise, because we can here best imitate His divine attributes. If ever there was a cause, in which justice and mercy

mercy are not only combined and reconciled, but incorporated, it is in this cause of suffering nations, which we now bring before your Lordships, this second Session of Parliament, unwearied and unfatigued in our persevering pursuit; and we feel it to be a necessary preliminary, a necessary fact, a necessary attendant and concomitant of every public thanksgiving, that we should express our gratitude by our virtues, and not merely with our mouths: and that, when we are giving thanks for acts of mercy, we should render ourselves worthy of them by doing acts of mercy ourselves. My Lords, these considerations, independent of those, which were our first movers in this business, strongly urge us at present to pursue with all zeal and perseverance the great cause, we have now in hand. And we feel this to be the more necessary, because we cannot but be sensible, that light, unstable, variable, capricious, inconstant, fastidious minds soon tire in any pursuit, that requires strength, steadiness, and perseverSuch persons, who we trust are but few, and who certainly do not resemble your Lordships, nor us, begin already to say, How long is this business to continue? Our answer is,-It is to continue till its ends are obtained,

ance.

We know, that by a mysterious dispensation of Providence injury is quick and rapid; and justice

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