Delphi Complete Works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan

by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

  It would not, he trusted, be argued, that because Mr. Hastings had not marked every passing shade of guilt, and because he had only given the bold outline of Cruelty, that he was therefore to be acquitted. — It was laid down by the law of England — that law which was the perfection of Reason, — that a Person ordering an Act to be done by his Agent, was answerable for that act with all his consequences. Middleton had been appointed in 1777, the avowed and private Agent — the secondself of Mr. Hastings. The Governor General had ordered the measure: Middleton declared that it could not have been effected by milder means. If he never saw, nor heard afterwards of the consequences of the measure, he was answerable therefore for every pang that was inflicted, and for all the blood that was shed. But he had heard, and that instantly of the whole. He had written to arraign Middleton of forbearance and of neglect! — He commanded them to work upon their hopes and fears, and to leave no means untried, until — to speak their own language, but which would be better suited to the Banditti of a Cavern —

  “they obtained possession of the secret hoards of the old Ladies.”

  — He would not allow even of a delay of two days to smooth the compelled approaches of a SON to his MOTHER, on such an occasion! — His orders were peremptory; — and if a massacre did not take place, it was the merit of accident — and not of Mr. Hastings. — After this would it be said, that the prisoner was ignorant of the acts, or not culpable for their consequences? It was true, he had not enjoined in so many words the Guards, the Famine, and the Bludgeons: he had not weighed the fetters, nor numbered the lashes to be inflicted on his victims. But yet he was equally guilty as if he had borne an active and personal share in each transaction. It was, as if he had commanded that the heart should be torn from the bosom, and yet had enjoined that no blood should follow. He was in the same degree accountable to the Law, to his Country, to his Conscience and to his GOD!

  Mr. Hastings had endeavoured also to get rid of a part of his Guilt, by observing that he was but one of the Supreme Council, and that all the rest had sanctioned those transactions with their approbation. If Mr. Hastings could prove, however, that others participated in the Guilt, it would not tend to diminish his own Criminality. But the fact was, that the Council had in nothing erred so much as in a criminal Credulity given to the declarations of the Governor General. They knew not a word of those transactions until they were finally concluded. — It was not until the January following, that they saw the Mass of Falsehood which had been published under the title of

  “Mr. Hastings’ Narrative.”

  They had been then unaccountably duped into the suffering a Letter to pass, dated the 29th of November, intended to deceive the Directors into a belief, that they had received intelligence at that time, which was not the fact. — These Observations, Mr. Sheridan said, were not meant to cast any obloquy on the Council; — they had undoubtedly been deceived, and the deceit practised on them by making them sign the Narrative, was of itself a strong accusation of Mr. Hastings, and a decided proof of his own Consciousness of Guilt. When tired of corporal Infliction, his Tyranny was gratified by insulting the understanding. Other Tyrants, tho’ born to greatness, such as a NERO, or CALIGULA, might have been roused, it had been supposed, by reflection, and awakened into contrition; — but here was an instance which spurned at Theory, and baffled supposition; a man born to a state at least of equality; inured to calculation and brought up in habits of reflection; — and yet proving in the end that Monster in Nature, a deliberate and reasoning Tyrant!

  The Board of Directors received those advices which Mr. Hastings’s thought proper to transmit, but though unfurnished with any other materials to form their judgment, they expressed very strongly their doubts, and as properly ordered an Enquiry into the circumstances of the alledged Disaffection of the Begums; pronouncing it at the same time a Debt which was due to the Honor and Justice of the British Nation. — This enquiry however on the Directions reaching India, Mr. Hastings thought it absolutely necessary to elude. — He stated to the Council, that it being merely stated that

  “IF on enquiry, certain facts appeared,”

  no enquiry was thereby directly enjoined! —

  “It would revive (he said) those animosities that subsisted between the Begums and the Vizier, which had then subsided; — if the former were inclined to appeal to a foreign jurisdiction, they were the best judges of their own feeling, and should be left to make their own complaint.”

  — All this, however, was nothing to the magnificent paragraph which concluded this Minute, and to which Mr. Sheridan also requested the attention of the Court. —

  “Beside, said Mr. Hastings, I hope it will not be a departure from official language to say — that the MAJESTY of JUSTICE ought not to be approached without solicitation: she ought not to descend to enflame or provoke, but to withhold her judgment, until she is called on to determine!”

  What was still more astonishing, was that Sir John Macpherson, who had before opposed Mr. Hastings, was caught by this bold bombastic quibble, and rejoined in the same words,

  “that the MAJESTY of JUSTICE, ought not to be approached, without solicitation!”

  “But my Lords, continued Mr. Sheridan, I rely on the Judgment of your Lordships for a very different opinion. I hear you already call on me to turn from the ill-shaped Pagod, — from the monstrous Idol, which this bold Man at your Bar, has thus set up, and to which he has dared to give the appellation of JUSTICE; — I hear you command me to turn from the debased Caricature, to contemplate the figure of JUSTICE, where she sits in her more dignified form, and her more august Tribunal, — HERE; — to a Justice commanding, yet not rigorous; efficient, yet not sanguinary: — to a Justice, active and regardful, yet without restlessness or suspicion; — to a JUSTICE, whose loveliest attribute appears in stooping to raise the oppressed, and to bind up the wounds of the afflicted. — To that JUSTICE I now make my confident appeal, — in a Cause the most important to the interests of Humanity that has been ever brought to a decision, — in a cause, where, though the injuries were widely extended, the joyous and reverberant murmurs of redress, would reach to a circle still more enlarged. — I will not therefore adjure your Lordships to dismiss every thing like party motives on this occasion, as I well know that so perverse a bias cannot possibly intrude on your decision — But I will conjure you, by the dignity of your several characters: I will conjure you by the august solemnity of this high tribunal; I will conjure by that sacred tie of honor to which you will appeal, when laying your hands on your bosoms you give the important judgment — to weigh well the Evidence which we have submitted to you. Let not Quibbles on words do away the force of Fact — Let but the Truth appear, and our Cause is gained. — MY LORDS — I HAVE DONE.”

  When Mr. Sheridan had concluded the admiration of his Auditors was too great for silent approbation. It unanimously burst forth in a tumult of applause, which the recollection of the scene as instantly suppressed. — It was a tribute of Feeling to GENIUS, such as Form could not constrain, no inferior Consideration subdue.

  The Court immediately rose, and adjourned to the first TUESDAY, in the next Session of Parliament.

  FINIS.

  THE CELEBRATED SPEECH OF RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, ESQ IN WESTMINSTER-HALL, ON THE 3D, 6TH, 10TH, AND 13TH OF JUNE, 1788, ON HIS SUMMING UP THE EVIDENCE ON THE BEGUM CHARGE AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE.

  ADVERTISEMENT.

  THE Editor of Mr. SHERIDAN’S Speech, which has been collected with great diligence, and corrected with great attention, will make no apology for giving to the world the celebrated Oration, which all the world could not possibly hear. For arrangement of matter, acuteness of observation, pointedness of sarcasm, and pathos of expression, this Speech, which excited expectation without disappointment, has been seldom surpassed, and seldomer equalled. It is, however, fair for Mr. Hastings’s friends to request, that judgment may be suspended till the other side shall be heard; since brilliancy of eloquence, and cogency of proo
f have very different effects on judicious minds.

  16th June, 1788.

  MR. SHERIDAN’S SPEECH IN WESTMINSTER HALL,

  TUESDAY, JUNE THE 3d, 1788.

  THE Court being seated precisely at twelve o’clock, MR. SHERIDAN arose. — It would be superfluous, he observed, for him to call the attention of their Lordships to the magnitude and importance of the subject before them; to advert to the parties who were engaged in the business; or to depict the situation of those multitudes who were ultimately to be affected. All this had already been done by the Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Burke) who opened the prosecution; — by him, who, alone, was equal to the task; — by him, to whom mankind was indebted for the embodied stand, which was now made in defence of the general rights of humanity. — Neither was it his intention to enter into any detail which might be deemed foreign to the question immediately before the Court: — he would only indulge himself in a few words respecting some insinuations which had been thrown out against the persons concerned in this prosecution. It had been whispered, by whom he could not say, that there was something malicious, and something, perhaps, too violent in the manner in which it had been conducted. Speaking for himself, and as far as the heart of man could be known, for the other managers appointed by the Commons, he would boldly assert, that they had acted solely from conviction; not a conviction born in error, and nursed by prejudice; but a conviction founded on deliberate and well-grounded enquiry; — that they had proceeded, not as rejoicing in punishment, but impelled by a sanguine hope of remedy. — Personal malice! God forbid that they should indulge such a sensation against the unfortunate gentleman at the bar; but how, when they were to speak of Rapine, of Cruelty, and of Extortion, could such ideas be conveyed but in consonant language? There was undoubtedly a difference between Impeachment for capital Crimes, and those for Misdemeanours only. In proceedings on the former, every latitude had been indulged by usage, every aggravation was employed, and every act of the Prisoner tortured into Criminality. No such privilege was claimed by the managers on the present occasion; but yet it should be considered by those, whose pity seemed to rise in proportion with the guilt of its object; — that if such a mode of proceeding was admissible in the former Case, where the life of the Prisoner was affected, it was still more justifiable on an Impeachment like the present; where the utmost consequences of guilt, when proved, would be but a splendid exclusion of the Criminal from that Society which he had injured, or a trifling deduction from the spoils of a long continued Extortion.

  It had been observed what was undoubtedly true, that no complaint from the natives of India had been presented in the course of these proceedings. Those, however, who were first to make this observation, were fully convinced that meekness in suffering was there a part of the national character, and that their terrors had been too deeply impressed, not to be long remembered. But though a despair of British Justice had prevailed through that Peninsula; — though their subdued hearts could not even hope for relief; — yet their claims on the Justice and Humanity of their Lordships were not thereby diminished, but recommended. He would not mention this Despair, without accompanying the observation by proof; he therefore read Extracts from two Letters, the first, lately received from Lord Cornwallis; the second, enclosed from Captain Kirkpatrick to his Lordship: from both which it appeared, that such was the prevailing sense through India, of the injuries inflicted by the English, and of their repeated violations of every compact, that it would be long indeed before their confidence in English faith, or their reliance on English justice, could again be restored.

  To these complaints their Lordships were now to answer, not by professions, but by facts; — not by remedial acts directed to the future, but by an exemplary punishment inflicted on past delinquency. It was incumbent on them to shew to the oppressed natives of India, and to future Governors and Judges, that there could be no authority so high, no office so sacred, as not to be subject to the paramount power of British Justice. — He did not, however, mean to say, that the Example should be made, unless the Guilt was first fully proved: No, God forbid, that in this free and just land, legal proof and legal guilt should ever be separated! — Though the greater part of the Evidence on this occasion had been, with a few exceptions, wrung from the unrelenting accomplices of the prisoner — from men who had partook of the spoils, and were involved in the guilt; yet had he therefore no indulgence to demand, nor had he to request that the Court should take that as evidence on this occasion, which on any other they might deem themselves bound to refuse. He, on the contrary, was now to bring forward to their Lordships a Mass of Evidence, as full, as strong, as competent, and as conclusive, as ever established the guilt of a criminal, or ever brought conviction home to the breasts of conscientious Judges. In the performance of this task, he observed, he should have the less difficulty, as their Lordships had attended to the whole, voluminous and complicated as it appeared, with a diligence which did honor to their feelings, and shewed their individual sense of the dignity of that high Tribunal, which they collectively formed.

  The first part of this Evidence, to which he should call the attention of the Court, was the Defences delivered in by Mr. Hastings to the House of Commons, and to their Lordships. On these, as being the voluntary admissions of the Prisoner, unextorted by any threat, and unbiassed by any persuasion, much stress had undoubtedly been laid. To a part of these, however, an objection had been made, the most extraordinary, perhaps, that had ever been advanced in a Court of Criminal Justice: — an objection which, when Mr. Hastings was well advised, as he undoubtedly was — when he was saved from his own rash Guidance, the Managers could scarcely have expected. This objection was, that a Part of the first Defence in particular, not having been written by Mr. Hastings, but by some of his friends, that Gentleman was not bound by any admissions therein contained. Mr. Hastings, on appearing at the Bar of the House of Commons, had pleaded the haste in which he had written, in palliation of his inaccuracies; he had even made a merit of doing that himself, which would be less dangerous if he had committed it to another! — But now, said Mr. Sheridan, that he finds that there is something more than inaccuracy — something fraught with that actual danger which he had apprehended — he reverts to that plea which he had abandoned, and declares that he had committed the trust to others! — He disclaims all his former merits, and avers that, in making up his tale, he had not trusted solely to his own powers, — that he had put his Memory into Commission, and parcelled out his Conscience into different departments. The structure, it appeared, went on, whilst Mr. Hastings was content with overseeing and cheering his Labourers.— “Mr. Shore, said he, you will take care to make me appear a good Financier! Major Scott, my Judgment is reposed in your hands! Mr. Middleton, my HUMANITY is your’s!!! — The work being thus done, Mr. Hastings surveyed it with a careless glance, and adopted it as his own. But now that its defects appear, the Child of his Adoption becomes the object of his aversion, his approbation ceases, and his language is totally changed. — The Defence is, in general, made up of general denials of the Charges, intermixed with encomiums on his own conduct; yet Mr. Hastings exclaims, “Subject me to all the other evidence against me; — I know I can trust to their want of Recollection, and their force of Attachment. — Bare my bosom to every shaft of Enmity, but save me from the Perils of my own Panegyric!” — The haste in which these productions were written, was also alledged by Mr. Hastings as an apology for every error; but did it follow, that, because a man wrote rapidly, he should also write falsely? or was it, that the truth and candour of Mr. Hastings were so deeply buried in his bosom, that long study alone could bring them upwards, whilst the natural falsehood, floating on the surface, could be transferred with extemporaneous readiness to every topic, whether to be written, or to be uttered? — These were the apologies offered for the variations, the admissions, and the inconsistency, of Mr. Hastings’s Defences; but these, it was to be hoped, for the sake of propriety and good sense, would never again be repeated.r />
  Mr. Sheridan, on quitting this subject, entered into a very full and happy delineation of the situation of the Princesses of Oude. No perusal of the Turkish History, he observed, nor attention to the precepts of the Mahometan religion, could give their Lordships any idea of the manners of the women of high casts in Hindostan. Educated in a profound respect to the customs of their Persian ancestors, they maintained a purer style of Prejudice, and a loftier degree of Superstition; dwelling perpetually within the precincts of their Zenanas, the Simplicity of their sentiments was equalled only by the Purity of their conduct. In those innocent retreats, they were circumscribed, not immured; for such was the force of Prejudice, that Liberty would be looked on as a curse to those, to whom the common gaze of men would be regarded as an unexpiable violation. However mistaken their ideas, they were placed there by the hand of Piety, and could not be disturbed but by a sacrilege. They were as Relics on an altar, which, though deposited by Superstition, none but the impious would disturb.