Mr. Burke's panegyric on this fpeech ought not to be omitted; it ran nearly as follows:

"He has, this day, furprized the thousands who hung with rapture on his accents, by fuch an array of talents, fuch an exhibition of capacity, fuch a difplay of powers, as are unparalleled in the annals of oratory; a difplay that reflected the highest honor upon himself--luftre upon letters--renown upon parliament--glory upon the country. Of all fpecies of rhetoric, of every kind of eloquence that has been witneffed or recorded, either in ancient or modern times; whatever the acutenefs of the bar, the dignity of the fenate, the folidity of the judgment-feat, and the facred morality of the pulpits, have hitherto furnifhed; nothing have equalled what we have this day heard in Weftminster-hall. No holy feer of religion, no ftatesman, no orator, no man of any literary defcription whatever, has come up, in the one inftance, to the pure fentiments of morality, or, in the other, to that variety of knowledge, force of imagination, propriety and vivacity of allufion, beauty and elegance of diction, strength and copiousness of ftile, pathos and fublimity of conception, to which we, this day, liftened with ardour and admiration. From poetry up to eloquence, there is not a fpecies of compofition of which a complete and perfect fpecimen might not, from that fingle fpeech, be called and collected."

Those who had never read Mr. Burke's fpeeches, or heard him fpeak before, might be eafily induced to suppose that he had referved all the ftores of his eloquence for the impeachment of Mr. Haftings, fo that the beauties of thofe fpeeches were as countless as the beauties of the fair that affembled to liften to them. In the course of one of them he ftiled Mr. Haftings The Commander and Captain General of the Enormities in India." When he conferred this title on him, he took care that it should not be a mere empty one; he foon furnifhed him with abundance

of troops, agents, &c. which he marfhalled and depicted in the most ariful and eloquent manner. Hav ing drawn the character of Congo Bulwant Sing (a fecretary employed by Mr. Haftings) in the blackeft colours, he came to that of Debi Sing, which he painted as one of the greatest villains that ever ftained the page of hiftory. This monfter," or rather this collection of monfters, according to Mr. Burke," raised the rents of the inhabitants. He crouded the prisons with perfons of all ranks, and made them give bonds to what amount he pleased, as the price of their liberty; these bonds were put in force, and their demefnes fold at one year's purchase, to cancel the unjuft debt. This was not fufficient; he fold even the very ground deftined for the burial of the owners, and this was to them, from the nature of their education and religion, the most heart-rending of all their loffes. Having robbed the living of their liberty, food, &c. and the dead even of a refting place, he recollected there was another clafs, the poor peafantry, who, though unable to affift in the gratification of his avarice, they could ftill, however, adminifter to his cruelty.

"This inoffenfive race was cruelly tortured; cords were drawn tight round the fingers, until the flesh of the four on each hand was actually incorporated and become one folid mafs; the fingers were then separated by wedges of iron, and wood driven in between them. Others were tied two and two by the feet, and thrown across a wooden bar, upon which they hung with their feet uppermoft; they were then beat on the foals of their feet until their toe-nails dropped off.

"They were afterwards beat about the head until the blood gufhed out at the mouth, nofe, and ears; they were alfo flogged upon the naked body with bamboo canes and prickly bufhes, and, above all, with fome poifonous weeds, which were of a moft cauftic nature, and burnt at every touch. The cruelty of the mon

fter who had ordered all this, had contrived to tear the mind as well as body; he frequently had a father and a fon tied naked to one another by the feet and arms, and then flogged until the fkin was torn from the flesh; and he had the devilifh fatisfaction to know that every blow muft hurt, for if one escaped the fon, his fenfibility was wounded by the knowledge he had that the blow had fallen upon his father; when the fame torture was felt by the father, then he knew that every blow that miffed him had fallen upon his fon.

"The treatment of the females could not be defcribed; dragged forth from the inmoft receffes of their houfes, which the religion of the country had made for many fanctuaries, they were expofed naked to the public view; the virgins were carried to the court of justice, where they might naturally have looked for protection; but now they looked for it in vain, for in the face of the minifters of juftice, in the face of the fpectators, in the face of the fun, those tender and modeft virgins were brutally violated.

"The only difference between their treatment and that of the mothers was, that the former were dif honoured in the face of day, the latter in the gloomy receffes of their dungeons. Other females had the nipples of their breafts put in a clift of bamboo, and torn off: What modefty in all nations moft carefully conceals, this monfter revealed to view, and confumed by flow fires, nay, fome of the monftrous tools of this monfter Debi Sing had, horrid to tell, carried their unnatural brutality fo far as to introduce death into the fource of life."

Here Mr. Burke dropt his head upon his hands, unable to proceed, fo greatly was he oppreffed by the horror which he felt at this relation. The effect of it was visible through the whole auditory; the late Mrs. Sheridan fainted away, feveral ladies funk under the agitation of their feelings, amongst others Mrs. Siddons. Such a tragedy was never exhibited

on any ftage, or delivered in fuch impaffionate tones, and when his tongue could no longer perform its office, indignation and pity alternately fpoke from

his brow.

Notwithstanding Mr. Burke could command all the figures of rhetoric, all the flowers of fancy, all the beauties of poetry, all the fruits of experience, all the axioms, maxims, authorities, and quotations of ancient and modern writers, yet he could not command his temper, nor could he mention Mr. Hafting's name without adding fome degrading epithet, which he well knew he ought not to do, out of refpect to the Court, and even to himfelf. This involved him fometimes in dilemmas which he might have eafily avoided, if he had followed the gentleman-like conduct of Mr. Fox, and the reft of the managers. On one of these occafions he was rebuked by a right reverend prelate. On the 13th of June, 1793, Mr. Francis defended the conduct of Mr. Burke as a manager, and lamented that he who had written fo much in favour of a certain clafs of men, did not experience gentler treatment from them; the fcripture had faid (continued Mr. Francis)" Put not your truft in princes," and if he might take the liberty he would add, nor yet bifhops. Mr. Burke thanked Mr. Francis, and faid, "He never did, nor would, put his truft in great men, nor in little men, but in him that commanded him neither to truft in the one nor the other." Mr. Fox, on the opening of the Benares charge, having occafion to mention Mr. Burke, could not be fatisfied with the bare mention of a name that was fo dear to him.

"If we are no longer in fhameful ignorance of India," faid he, "if India no longer makes us blush, in the eyes of Europe, let us know and feel our obligations to him-whofe admirable refources of opinion and affection, whofe untiring toil, fublime genius, and high afpiring honour, railed him up confpicuous among the most beneficent worthies of mankind."

We fhall not pretend to fay what was the mo tive which induced Mr. Burke to become the public accufer of Mr. Haftings; but his perfeverance in the purfuit undoubtedly tended to encrease his fame, which was then on the decline, and if he had abstained from all afperity of language to the accused, he would have ftood in a ftill fairer point of view with the public; perhaps no man ever exhibited, even in his very countenance, tone, and gesture, a higher degree of perfonal triumph than he did the day after he found himself in the majority on the queftion of impeachment. Having met one of his friends, he could fcarce contain himself with rapture, "This is a proud day for England," faid he, "what a glorious profpect! her justice extending to Afia, her humanity to Africa, her friendship to America, and her faith and good will to all Europe."

The refult of the impeachment is fo well known, and the whole of the proceedings fo amply detailed in various publications, that it is unneceffary to dwell any longer on the fubject.

In the debate on the commercial treaty with France, on the 23d of January, 1787, Mr. Burke oppofed it with his ufual eloquence and violence. Mr. Pitt, he faid, with that narrownefs which leads men of limitted minds to look at great objects in a confined point of view, fpoke of the tranfaction as if it was the affair of two little 'compting-houfes, and not of two great nations. He feemed to confider it as a contention between the fign of the Fleur-de-lis and the fign of the old Red Lion, which fhould ob. tain the best custom.

"The love," faid he "that France bears to this country has been depicted in all the glowing rant of romance. Nay, in order to win upon our paffions at the expence of our reason, she has been perfonified-decked out in all her Lilies-and endued with a heart incapable of infidelity, and a tongue that feems only at a lofs to convey the artlefs language of that heart.