In

ternative of a highwayman, who in going forth in the evening hesitates which of his resources to prefer, Bagshot or Hounslow. In such a state of generous irresolution did Mr. Hastings proceed to Benares and Oude. At Benares he failed in his pecuniary object. Then, and not till then-not on account of any ancient enmities shown by the Begums-not in resentment for any old disturbances, but because he had failed in one place, and had but two in his prospect, did he conceive the base expedient of plundering these aged women. He had no pretence-he had no excuse -he had nothing but the arrogant and obstinate determination to govern India by his own corrupt will to plead for his conduct. flamed by disappointment in his first project, he hastened to the fortress of Chunar, to meditate the more atrocious design of instigating a son against his mother, of sacrificing female dignity and distress to parricide and plunder. At Chunar was that infamous treaty concerted with the Nabob Vizier to despoil the princesses of Oude of their hereditary possessions. There it was that Mr. Hastings had stipulated with one whom he called an independent prince, "that, as great distress has arisen to the Nabob's government from the military power and dominion assumed by the Jaghiredars, he be permitted to resume such as he may find necessary; with a reserve that all such for the amount of whose Jaghires the

Company are guarantees shall, in case of the resumptions of their lands, be paid the amount of their net collections, through the resident, in ready money; and that no English resident be appointed to Furruckabad."

No sooner was this foundation of iniquity thus instantly established, in violation of the pledged faith and solemn guarantee of the British Government; no sooner had Mr. Hastings determined to invade the substance of justice, than he resolved to avail himself of her judicial forms, and accordingly dispatched a messenger for the Chief Justice of India, to assist him in perpetrating the violations he had projected. Sir Elijah Impey being arrived, Mr. Hastings with much art proposed a question of opinion, involving an unsubstantiated fact, in order to obtain a surreptitious approbation of the measure he had predetermined to adopt: "The Begums being in open revolt, might not the Nabob confiscate their property?" "Most undoubtedly," was the ready answer of the friendly judge. Not a syllable of inquiry intervened as to the existence of the imputed rebellion, nor a moment's pause as to the ill purposes to which the decision of a chief justice might be perverted.

Thus, while the executive power in India was perverted to the most disgraceful inhumanities, the judicial authority also became its close and confidential associate-at the same moment that the sword of government was

turned to an assassin's dagger, the pure ermine of justice was stained and soiled with the basest and meanest contamination.

Under such circumstances did Mr. Hastings complete the treaty of Chunar-a treaty which might challenge all the treaties that ever subsisted. for containing in the smallest compass the most extensive treachery. Mr. Hastings did not conclude that treaty till he had received from the Nabob a present, or rather a bribe, of £100,000. The circumstances of this present were as extraordinary as the thing itself. Four months afterwards, and not till then, Mr. Hastings communicated the matter to the Company. Unfortunately for himself, however, this tardy disclosure was conveyed in words which betray his original meaning; for, with no common incaution, he admits the present "was of a magnitude not to be concealed."

Sheridan stated all the circumstances of this bribe, and averred that the whole had its rise in a principle of rank corruption. For what was the consideration of this extraordinary bribe? No less than the withdrawing from Oude, not only of all the English gentlemen in official situations, but the whole of the English army; and that, too, at the very moment when he himself had stated the whole country of Oude to be in open revolt and rebellion. Other very strange articles were contained in the same treaty, which nothing but this infamous

bribe could have occasioned, together with the reverse which he had in his own mind of treachery to the Nabob; for the only part of the treaty which he ever attempted to carry into execution was to withdraw the English gentlemen from Oude. The Nabob, indeed, considered this as essential to his deliverance, and his observation on the circumstance was curious "for though Major Palmer," said he, "has not yet asked anything, I observe it is the custom of the English gentlemen constantly to ask for something from me before they go." This imputation on the English Mr. Hastings was most ready to countenance as a screen for his own abandoned profligacy; and, therefore, at the very moment that he pocketed the extorted spoils of the Nabob, with his usual grave hypocrisy and cant, “Go,” he said to the English gentlemen, “go, you oppressive rascals, go from this worthy unhappy man whom you have plundered, and leave him to my protection. You have robbed him, you have plundered him, you have taken advantage of his accumulated distresses; but, please God, he shall in future be at rest, for I have promised him he shall never see the face of an Englishman again.” This, however, was the only part of the treaty which he ever affected to fulfil; and, in all its other parts, we learn from himself, that at the very moment he made it, he intended to deceive the Nabob; and, accordingly, he advised general instead of partial resump

tion, for the express purpose of defeating the first views of the Nabob, and, instead of giving instant and unqualified assent to all the articles of the treaty, he perpetually qualified, explained, and varied them with new diminutions and reservations. Sheridan called upon gentlemen to say, if there is any theory in Machiavel, any treachery upon record, that could equal this monstrous iniquity, if they had ever heard of any cold Italian fraud which could in any degree be put in comparison with the disgusting hypocrisy and unequalled baseness which Mr. Hastings had shown on that occasion.

After having stated this complicated infamy in terms of the severest reprehension, Sheridan proceeded to observe, that he recollected to have heard it advanced by some of those admirers of Mr. Hastings, who were not so implicit as to give unqualified applause to his crimes; that they found an apology for the atrocity of them in the greatness of his mind. To estimate the solidity of such a defence, it would be sufficient merely to consider in what consisted this prepossessing distinction, this captivating characteristic of greatness of mind! Is it not solely to be traced in great actions directed to great ends? In them, and them alone, we are to search for true magnanimity; to them only can we justly affix the splendid title and honors of real greatness. There was, indeed, another species of great