play." But, my Lords, this Prisoner has gone a great deal further than being merely deficient in decent humility. Instead of defending himself, he has, with a degree of insolence unparalleled in the history of pride and guilt, cast out a recriminatory accusation upon the House of Commons. Instead of considering himself as a person already under the condemnation of his Country, and uncertain whether or not that condemnation shall receive the sanction of your verdict, he ranks himself with the suffering heroes of antiquity. Joining with them, he accuses us, the Representatives of his Country, of the blackest ingratitude, of the basest motives, of the most abominable oppression, not only of an innocent, but of a most meritorious individual, who, in your, and in our service, has sacrificed his health, his fortune, and even suffered his fame and character to be called in question, from one end of the world to the other. This, I say, he charges upon the Commons of Great Britain; and he charges it before the Court of Peers of the same Kingdom. Had I not heard this language from the Prisoner, and afterwards from his counsel, I must confess I could hardly have believed that any man could so comport himself at your Lordships bar.

After stating in his defence the wonderful things he did for us, he says, "I maintained

"the

"the wars which were of your formation, or "that of others, not of mine. I won one mem "ber of the great Indian confederacy from it,

by an act of seasonable restitution; with an"other, I maintained a secret intercourse, and "converted him into a friend; a third, I drew "off by diversion and negotiation, and em

ployed him as the instrument of peace. When you cried out for peace, and your cries were "heard by those who were the objects of it, I "resisted this and every other species of coun"teraction, by rising in my demands, and ac

complished a peace, and I hope an everlast

ing one, with one great state; and I at "least afforded the efficient means by which "a peace, if not so durable, more seasonable "at least, was accomplished with another. I gave you all; and you have rewarded me "with confiscation, disgrace and a life of impeachment."

Comparing our conduct with that of the people of India, he says, They manifested a generosity, of which we have no example in "the European world. Their conduct was the "effect of their sense of gratitude for the be"nefits they had received from my adminis"tration. I wish I could say as much of my own countrymen."

My Lords, here then we have the Prisoner at

your

B.C.L

your bar in his demeanour not defending himself, but recriminating upon his country; charging it with perfidy, ingratitude and oppression, and making a comparison of it with the Banyans of India, whom he prefers to the Commons of Great Britain.

My Lords, what shall we say to this demeanour? With regard to the charge of using him with ingratitude, there are two points to be considered. First, the charge implies that he had rendered great services; and secondly, that he has been falsely accused.

If

My Lords, as to the great services, they have not, they cannot come in evidence before you. you have received such evidence, you have received it obliquely; for there is no other direct proof before your Lordships of such services, than that of there having been great distresses and great calamities in India, during his government. Upon these distresses and calamities, he has, indeed, attempted to justify obliquely the corruption that has been charged upon him: but you have not properly in issue these services. You cannot admit the evidence of any such services received directly from him, as a matter of recriminatory charge upon the House of Commons, because you have not suffered that House to examine into the validity and merit of this plea. We have not been heard upon this recriminatory

recriminatory charge, which makes a con-
siderable part of the demeanour of the Prisoner ;
we cannot be heard upon it; and therefore I
demand, on the part of the Commons of Great
Britain, that it be dismissed from your con-
sideration; and this I demand, whether you
take it as an attempt to render odious the conduct
of the Commons; whether you take it in mitiga-
tion of the punishment due to the Prisoner for
his crimes; or whether it be adduced as a pre-
sumption, that so virtuous a servant never could
be guilty of the offences with which we charge
him. In which ever of these lights you may be
inclined to consider this matter, I say you have
it not in evidence before you; and therefore
you must expunge it from your thoughts, and
separate it entirely from your judgment. I shall
hereafter have occasion to say a few words on
this subject of merits. I have said thus much at
present, in order to remove extraneous im-
pressions from your minds. For admitting that
your Lordships are the best judges, as I well
know that you are, yet I cannot say that you are
not men, and that matter of this kind, however
irrelevant, may not make an impression upon
you. It does, therefore, become us to take
some occasional notice of these supposed services,
not in the way of argument, but with a view by
one sort of prejudice to destroy another prejudice.
VOL. XV.
C

If

If there is any thing in evidence which tends to destroy this plea of merits, we shall recur to that evidence; if there is nothing to destroy it but argument, we shall have recourse to that argument; and if we support that argument by authority and document, not in your Lordships' minutes, I hope it will not be the less considered as good argument, because it is so supported.

I must now call your Lordships' attention from the vaunted services of the Prisoner, which have been urged to convict us of ingratitude, to another part of his recriminatory defence. He says, my Lords, that we have not only oppressed him with unjust charges (which is a matter for your Lordships to judge, and is now the point at issue between us,) but that instead of attacking him by fair judicial modes of proceeding, by stating crimes clearly and plainly, and by proving those crimes, and shewing their necessary consequences, we have oppressed him with all sorts of foul and abusive language; so much so, that every part of our proceeding has, in the eye of the world, more the appearance of private revenge, than of publick justice.

Against this impudent and calumnious recriminatory accusation, which your Lordships have thought good to suffer him to utter here, at a time too when all dignity is in danger of being trodden under foot, we will say nothing by way