Mr. Hastings's friends clung to him during the whole of the trial: even the lawyers who pled his cause, were touched with an emo. tion, neither to be purchased with A true In the trial of Mr. Hastings, considered as an heroic poem, we recognize great unity of design; to harass, provoke, discompose, embarrass, and finally overwhelm and discomfit, an innocent sufferer. Various episodes occur in their nature and tendency with the main fable: the merit of the accused, particularly magnanimous patience, the virtue by which, in this epopeia, he was most eminently distinguished, was contrasted with the impotent fretfulness and impatience of his principal tormentor; and, what has been thought by some critics indispensable in a composition of this kind, somewhat of the ludicrous and burlesque relieved this serious drama, in the petulant obloquy of a Thersites The task undertaken by the prosecutors appeared, on the outset, to be, what indeed it was, singularly arduous. Public opinion was in favour of Mr. Hastings. And, while calumny was heaped on calumny in England, letters were constantly received from India, proclaiming his merit in terms of the most enthusiastic gratitude and applause. But the managers of the impeachment, and particularly two men, who were of the same country, the same nearly in point of genius, as well as birth, though each was marked by some peculiarities of character, undertook, under the auspices of factious combination, to brave every difficulty, and to storm the temple of virtue on the wing of poetical fancy. They both of them possessed great variety of style, as well as vigour of imagination. By the magic of their eloquence they could give animation to every object they might have occasion to describe; and, where real objects should fail, to call into existence a thousand airy nothings. They were poets of evidence*. They had philosophy enough to know, that a degree of belief attends vivid conception; and that, to arrest the attention of men, is a great step towards their conviction. It appeared to be their general aim to accommodate all appearances to a system merely hypothetical, by exaggeration, by fancy, and a strong appeal to the passions. Nor were these gentlemen, it has been supposed, in this ingenious work, actuated merely by an inveteracy against Mr, Hastings; but, in part, on so splendid a theatre as was opened by this trial, by a competition for literary fame. Burke was richer in his various metaphors and allusions, as well as more lively in his transitions; but he mixed the serious too often with the low and the burlesque. Sheridan's muse was less desultory, and more equal in her flight; though they, both of them, soared with epic freedom into the boundless regions of fancy. The listless tedious, and torpid calm, produced by the law's delay, it must be owned, mars the comparison that has been made between this trial and an epic or dramatic representation, in which the art of the poet passes, with an interesting rapidity, over what is dull and languid, to changes and events of an affecting and striking nature. But, to the eye of true philosophical criticism, the patience of the person principally concerned, sustained with invincible fortitude in such torpid calms, appears to the greatest advantage. In the conflict and agitation of danger quickly to be over, or quickly to spend its utmost fury, the mind of the patriot and hero is awakened and fortified by general attention and sympathy; when these are removed, and the sufferer is remanded, as it were, to his solitary prison, the eclat of his virtue is less, but the proof of its constancy greater; greater in the inverse ratio of the magnitude of the trouble and the danger, to the indifference with which it is regarded. Nor did Mr. Hastings feel,or affect to fee', in his unmerited as unprecedented situation, astoical indifference. A A true critic could easily observe a very wide difference, indeed, be. tween the eloquence of the defenders of Mr. Hastings, and the studied, affected, and theatrical, de. clamations of those who were accounted the principal managers of the impeachment. The speech of one of these, on the partieulat charge committed to his care, was continued for several days. Almost all the speeches of the managers ran to a length altogether unprecedented in the history of impeachments; it was shrewdly observed, at the time, that this unusual prolongation of speeches was a proof of the extreme difficulty, and impossibility, of the task under. taken by the managers. But, in truth, it is not to this circumstance only, nor yet to the other circum stance of a rivalry between pro fessed orators, before an audience of the first dignity and splendour, that. the extreme length of the speeches in question is to be attributed. A revolution has taken place in this country, at least, in oratory, somewhat analogous to that in military operations by which the commanders-in-chief of armies do not attempt to carry a few posts in succession, by different detachments, but by an immense force, and a con tinuation of action, to carry the whole of the enemy's line of defence, though extended over a frontier to be measured only by hundreds of leagues.* Every humour, spirit, custom, and pursuit, almost without exception, is tinctured in its progress, by He confessed he was not a man of apathy'. He bore his sorrows as a man, but he also felt them as a man. And he implored repeatedly, though too much in vain, even at the expence of waving the benefit of most material evidence in his favour, a speedy termination of his trial. This too, in the eye of true philosophical criticism, will be considered as none of the least indications of a great as well as an amiable character. As we have given an example of the writing that was from time to time volunteered in favour of Mr. Hastings, at home, so we shall just make one quotation from a fo teign publication: "Il serait injuste de quitter ce sujet sans avouer que ce trésor des connaissances primitives nous a été ouvert par les soins d'un gouverneur zélé pour le progrés des sciences, M. Hastings dont la conduite, pleine de douceur et de noblesse, engagea les Bramines à lui découvrir volontairement ce que les menaces et les moyens de seduction, employés par une longue suite de souverains dans le Mogol, n'avaient jamais pu obtenir. pourra paraître extraordinaire que je parle si favorablement d'un homme qui depuis sept ans est en état d'accusation devant la chambre des pairs de la Grande Bretagne; mais on doit observer que je parle ici de sa conduite envers les Indiens, qui l'appellent encore leur père, et non des actes de rigueur qu'il peut avoir jugés aécessaires pour la conversation de l'Inde, contre quelques chefs réfractaires, dans un moment critique où nos établissemens dans l'Orient semblaient menacés à la fois par les nations Européennes et par les indiens. Peut-être même serait-il avanta geur, pour tous les états, qu'on ramenât sévèrement à la raison tous les factieux, forsque la patrie se trouve dans un moment de crise." Diuertations sur Les Antiquités de Russie; par Matthieu Guthrie, Conseiller de Cour de Sa Majesté Impériale, Médecin du Corps Impérial des Cadets Nobles: traduites sur son ouvrage Anglais, dédié a la Société Royale des Antiquaires d'Ecosse, Te. Oe. St. Petersbourg, 1795. * It is observed by our Saviour, as characteristic of hypocrites, or thea who do not speak from sincerity and simplicity of heart, they that thịnh “ they shail be heard for their much speaking." Mat. vi. 7. [P2] human weakness and folly, until, at last it is involved in a degree of ridicule. Chivalry, though founded in the noblest principles of mind: and heart, became ridiculous; phi lology became ridiculous; logic be. came ridiculous. A degree of ridicule, by the frivolous researches cf mere empirics and nomenclators, has of late been affixed, in the imaginations of many, to the pursuits of even experimental philo. sophy. There is nothing more preposterous than to seek the fame of eloquence by prolixity. Grand ideas, convincing truths, warm and generous sentiments, are quickly communicated from mind to mind with the speed of lightning. The time is certainly not far dis. tant, when all speakers in parliament, who possess sound taste and judgment, will be as studious of brevity as most of our present ora. tors are of diffusion. An object of more consequence to the nation than this famous trial, occupied at this time the public mind. The prosecution of this unfortunate war, rendering the utmost exertions necessary, the increase of the military, and of the naval strength of the nation, had been un. precedented. Of ships and seamen, the natural defence of this island, people viewed with satisfaction the increasing numbers; but they began to entertain jealousies of the daily augmentation of the land. forces, looking upon them as the most dan gerous instruments in the hands of ministers who might harbour inimical designs to the liberties of the country. The many precedents of their subversion, wherever a great military power had been established, alarmed the discerning part of the commu. nity, and was in a great measure the motive for the wishes, so warmly expressed, by the generality, for a speedy restoration of peace. The original establishment of the militia had been long considered as a counterpoise to the power vested in the crown, through the command and management of the army. Those who ventured to give vent to their thoughts upon this subject explicitly, boldly termed the regular forces, the army of the crown, and the militia the army of the people. They were, at the same time, of opinion, that this latter body of men should remain perpetually distinct from the former, and that all the regulations respecting them should be so framed as to allow no ministerial influence to alter them; and, above all that the officers belonging to this body should be placed on a footing essentially different from that of the officers of the army, in point of subordination, advancement, and pay. Little alteration had taken place in the arrangements relating to the militia from the date of its primitive institution, till the dangers resulting from the present war, induced men in power to prepare for those emergencies they might occasion. Among the means of resistance to a foreign enemy, none appeared more eligible than to augment the militia, improve its discipline and assimi. late it as much as possible to the army. With this view Mr. Wind. ham moved, on the 6th of March, for a committee to prepare an estimate of the additional allowances intended for the subaltern officers of the militia on the return of peace. He grounded his motion on the necessity of having expert subalterns in that service: an object not to be at tained without adequate encourage ment. ment. By this measure a description of men would be retained, entirely adequate to the purpose of maintaining due discipline, and of rendering the militia of no less utility than the regulars. His motion was seconded by Mr. Bastard, and Mr. Yorke, and by colonels Stanley, Sloane, and Upton; and opposed by Mr. Curwen, general Tarleton, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Sheridan, and Mr. Fox, as tending to increase the influence and patron age of ministers, and to place the whole military strength of the kingdom under their immediate direction; a step evidently preparatory to the completest establishment of arbitrary power. The motion was supported by Mr. Pitt, as intending no more than to provide a sufficient number of inferior officers, properly qualified for their stations. The allowance was only to those in actual service, and in that respect differed materially from a pension or half pay. General Smith, Mr. Cox, and Mr. Wilberforce, spoke on the same side of the question, which was carried without farther opposition, Another subject of a military nature was brought before the house on the 30th of March. This was the bill for new modelling the Lon. don Militia. It was opposed by Mr. Sheridan, as a direct violation of the city charter. From time im. memorial, the citizens had enjoyed uninterruptedly the power of regulat. ing and commanding their own milita; no royal proclamation having hitherto been issued in London, as in other parts of the kingd. m, relating to the service of its military forces. In the latter years of Charles II. this charter had been violated, like many others; but this was no precedent, as what had been done by that arbitrary prince, had been shortly after annulled as il. legal. Mr. alderman Newnham, and Mr. Lushington, supported the bill. The latter maintained, in explicit terms, that the defence of the city would be better entrusted in the hands of military men, than placed in the hands of magistrates. This expression was severely censured by Mr. Sheridan, who represented the acquiescence of the citizens in a bill of this kind, as derogating from the spirit with which their ancestors had preserved a privilege lodged in them for ages, and of which they had occasionally made so honourable a use, in defence of the common liberties of the nation. The bill passed without farther discussion. To these alterations in military matters another was added some time after. In order to render the discipline of the militia perfectly complete, it was judged requisite to introduce into that body the use of artillery, and to train a number of the men to that service. The idea was generally approved; but some clauses in the bill, to that intent, were opposed as unconstitutional, by lord Radnor, in the house of lords, on the 22d of May. The bill authorized the pressing into the regular corps, those militia-men, who should become expert in the management of artillery. It also permitted those privates who were inclined to serve in the navy, or in the artillery, to quit the militia service. These and several other clauses, tending to encourage militia. men to enter into other corps, he objected to, as lessening materially [P3] the the strength of that body of men, who were evidently the most con. stitutional defence of the kingdom. The propriety of allowing men, bred to the sea, to prefer the navy to any other service, was strongly urged by lord Grenville, as of equal justice to individuals, and utility to the public. The artillery also was become of such use and importance, in the present system of war, that it required the highest encouragement. The numbers that would quit the militia, for those two branches of service, would not, however, prove so large as might be apprehended, when it was recollected, that the privates were mostly labouring men, in their several counties, and that the proportion wanted, for the artillery, was very small. Other arguments were used in favour of the measure proposed and against it; but it was carried by a great majority. An affair of more particular im. portance was, at this time, under the consideration of the commons. An extra allowance, for bread and for meat, had been made in the month of April, to the army, without the participation of parliament. The public was equally surprised and alarmed at a measure, which ap. peared to the generality unprece dented and unconstitutional. The complaints of the soldiery, at the scantiness of their pay, and its in. sufficiency to support them, at a time when the dearness of provisions was so excessive, had induced go. vernment to grant them the allow. ances in question: but though the humanity of the measure was indisputable, the method of carrying it into execution was violently reprobated by the generality of people. The fact was, that by virtue of an order from the war-office, countersigned by the secretary of that department, an immense sum of money would be levied upon the nation. What highly aggravated this conduct, and rendered it a manifest insult to the legislature; is took place while parliament was actually sitting, and ready to re ceive favourably, any application to that intent. Such a proceeding in minister could no otherwise be accounted for, than from a desire to establish a precedent, authorising them to raise money without apply. ing to parliament. It was calcu lated, at the same time, to make an impression on the soldiery, unfavour. able to parliament, and to the pub. lic. They would be taught to rely on the generosity of the crown, preferably to that of the nation and its representatives, and would, of course, carry their attachment to those whom they looked upon as their best friends and protectors. Such was the language of multi. tudes on this occasion. The opposition thought it necessary to espouse the cause of a majority, so loudly and repeatedly expressed; and, on the 18th of May, general Macleod moved, that a committee should be appointed to take the matter into consideration. He grounded his motion on the sentiments of the public, enforcing them with additional arguments, and proposed that the house should formally resolve, that it was unconstitutional to aug. ment the pay of the army, without previously consulting, orafterwards submitting such a measure to, par. liament; and, at the same time, to request the king to order the causes of the late grants to the military, to be laid before the house, and to assure him of its readiness to con cur |