Wraxall, in his Posthumous Memoirs, vol. i., 36-8, gives the following description of Mr. Sheridan's person and manner of speaking in his best days, before intemperance had begun its ravages on his body or mind. "His countenance and features had in them something peculiarly pleasing, indicative at once of intellect, humor, and gayety. All these characteristics played about his lips when speaking, and oper ated with inconceivable attraction; for they anticipated, as it were, to the eye the effect produced by his oratory on the ear; thus opening for him a sure way to the heart or the understanding. Even the tones of his voice, which were singularly mellifluous, aided the general effect of his eloquence; nor was it accompanied by Burke's unpleasant Irish accent. Pitt's enunciation was unquestionably more imposing, dignified, and sonorous; Fox displayed more argument, as well as vehemence; Burke possessed more fancy and enthusiasm ; but Sheridan won his way by a sort of fascination."

66

He possessed a ductility and versatility of talents which no public man in our time has equaled; and these intellectual endowments were sustained by a suavity of temper that seemed to set at defiance all attempts to ruffle or discompose it. Playing with his irritable or angry antagonist, Sheridan exposed him by sallies of wit, or attacked him with classic elegance of satire; performing this arduous task in the face of a crowded assembly, without losing for an instant either his presence of mind, his facility of expression, or his good humor. He wounded deepest, indeed, when he smiled, and convulsed his hearers with laughter while the object of his ridicule or animadversion was twisting under the lash. Pitt and Dundas, who presented the fairest marks for his attack, found, by experience, that though they might repel, they could not confound, and still less could they silence or vanquish him. In every attempt that they made, by introducing personalities, or illiberal reflections on his private life and literary or dramatic occupations, to disconcert him, he turned their weapons on themselves. Nor did he, while thus chastising his adversary, alter a muscle of his own countenance; which, as well as his gestures, seemed to participate, and display the unalterable serenity of his intellectual formation. Rarely did he elevate his voice, and never except in subservience to the dictates of his judgment, with the view to produce a corresponding effect on his audience. Yet he was always heard, generally listened to with eagerness, and could obtain a hearing at almost any hour. Burke, who wanted Sheridan's nice tact and his amenity of manner, was continually coughed down, and on those occasions he lost his temper. Even Fox often tired the House by the repetitions which he introduced into his speeches. Sheridan never abused their patience. Whenever he rose, they anticipated a rich repast of wit without acrimony, seasoned by allusions and citations the most delicate, yet obvious in their application."

Still, it should be remembered that such desertion is the inevitable fate of degrading vice, and especially of the beastly intemperance to which Sheridan had so long been abandoned. Large contributions had previously been made for his relief, but his improvidence knew no bounds; and he had for some time reduced himself to such a state that few of his old acquaintances could visit him without pain, or (it may be added) without the deepest mortification to himself, though they might wish, after his death, to do honor to his memory as a man of genius.

SPEECH

OF MR. SHERIDAN ON SUMMING UP THE EVIDENCE ON THE SECOND, OR BEGUM CHARGE AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE HOUSE OF LORDS, SITTING AS A HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT, JUNE, 1788.

INTRODUCTION.

THE Begums, or princesses referred to in this speech, were the mother and widow of the celebrated Sujah Dowlah, Nabob of Oude, a kingdom on the upper waters of the Ganges. At his death, he bequeathed for their support large yearly revenues from the government lands, called jaghires,' in addition to the treasures he had accumulated during his reign. He left his throne to Asoph Dowlah, a son by the younger Begum, who proved to be a man of weak intellect and debauched habits, and who soon became a mere vassal of the East India Company, under the government of Mr. Hastings. To secure his subjec tion, and guard against invasion from the neighboring states, Mr. Hastings compelled him to take large numbers of British troops into his pay; thus relieving the Company of enormous expense, and subjecting the natives to the severest exactions from men ostensibly placed among them for their protection. Single officers of the British army were known to have accumulated fortunes of several hundred thousand pounds during a few years service in Oude. Nearly the whole kingdom was thus reduced from a state of the highest prosperity, to beggary and ruin. The young Nabob was unable to make his regular payments of tribute, until, at the close of 1780, a debt of £1,400,000 stood against him on the Company's books. Mr. Hastings was, at this time, in the most pressing want of money. He had powerful enemies at Calcutta; his continuance in office depended on his being able to relieve the Company at once from its finan cial difficulties; and to do this effectually was the object of his memorable journey into upper India, in July, 1780. He looked to two sources of supply, Benares and Oude; and from one or both of these, he was determined to extort the means of relief from all his embarrassments. In respect to Benares, Mr. Mill states, in his British India, that Cheyte Sing, the Rajah of that kingdom, had paid his tribute "with an exactness rarely exemplified in the history of the tributary princes of Hindostan." But the same system had been adopted with him, as with the Nabob of Oude; and when he at last declared his inabil ity to pay, Mr. Hastings threw him into prison during the journey mentioned above, deprived him of his throne, and stripped him of all his treasures. They proved, however, to be only £200,000, a sum far short of what Mr. Hastings expected, for he had always supposed the Rajah to be possessed of immense hoards of wealth.

Disappointed in his first object, the Governor General now turned his attention to Oude. He knew the young Nabob would be ready, on almost any terms, to purchase deliverance from the troops which were quartered on his kingdom. He accordingly appointed a meeting with him at Chunar, a fortress of Benares, September 19th, 1781. Here the Nabob secretly offered him a bribe of £100,000. Mr. Hastings took it; whether with the intention to keep it as his own or pay it over to the Company, does not certainly appear. The transaction, however, soon became public, and the money was finally paid over, but not without a letter from Mr. Hastings to the Board of Directors, intimating in the most significant terms his anxiety to retain the money. On this point, Mr. Sheridan touches with great force in the progress of his speech. But Asoph Dowlah was not to escape so easily. A much larger sum than £100,000 was needed, and he was at length driven to an arrangement by which it was agreed, in the words of Mr. Mill, "that his Highness should be relieved from the expense, which he was unable to bear, of the English troops and gentlemen; and he, on his part, engaged to strip the Begums of both their treasures and their jaghires, delivering to the Governor General the proceeds."-Brit. India, iv., 375. In other words, he was to rob his mother and his grandmother, not only of all their property, but of the yearly income left by his father for their support.

But it was easier for the Nabob to promise than to perform. Such were the struggles of nature and religion in his breast, that for three months be hesitated and delayed, while Mr. Hastings, who was in the atmost need of money, was urging him to the performance. Finally, Mr. Middleton, the Resident at Oude, was ordered to cut the matter short-"to supersede the authority of the Nabob, and perform the necessary measures by the operation of English troops," if there was any further delay. Under this threat, Asoph resumed the jaghires; but declared, in so doing, that it was "an act of compulsion." The treasures were next to be seized. They were stored in the Zenana or Harem at Fyzabad, where the princesses resided; a sacred inclosure, guarded with superstitious veneration by the religion of the Hindoos, against access of all except its own inmates. A body of English troops, under the guidance of Mr. Middleton, marched to Fyzabad, on the 8th of January, 1782, and demanded the treasures. They were

The lands thus farmed were also called jaghires, and those who farmed them jaghiredars.

refused, and the town and castie were immediately taken by storm. The Zenana was now in the power of the English; but Mr. Middleton shrunk from an act of profanation which would probably have created a general revolt throughout Oude, and endeavored to break the spirit of the Begums by other means. He threw into prison their two ministers of state, aged men of the highest distinction; abridged them of their food, till they were on the borders of starvation; tortured them with the lash; deprived the inmates of the Zenana of their ordinary supply of provisions, till they were on the point of perishing of want; and thus succeeded in extorting property to the amount of £600,000, leaving these wretched wom en nothing for their support or comfort, not even their common household utensils.

Such was the charge which Mr. Sheridan was now to lay before the House of Lords, on the fourteenth day of the trial, Mr. Fox having previously submitted that which related to the treatment of Cheyte Sing. The facts in this case were not denied by Mr. Hastings as to any of the important particulars. His defense was this: (1.) That the property did not belong to the Begums. (2.) That their plunder was demanded by state necessity. (3.) That they had rebelled against him by attempting to assist Cheyte Sing, when deposed; by inducing the jaghiredars, or farmers of the jaghires, to resist their resumption; and by promoting insurrections in Oude. To get affidavits on these points, Mr. Hastings had sent his friend, Sir Elijah Impey, Chief Justice of Bengal, some hundreds of miles into Oude. (4.) That he was not responsible for the cruelties practiced on the Begums and their ministers, because he had given no direct order on that subject. Such was Mr. Hastings' defense before the House of Commons; and hence Mr. Sheridan shaped his speech before the House of Lords to meet these points.

After disclaiming, in his exordium, those vindictive feelings so loudly charged upon the managers by Mr. Hastings' friends:

I. He proves by the testimony of Lord Cornwallis the wretched condition to which Oude was reduced; charges all its calamities on the misgovernment and violence of Mr. Hastings; and shows that it was nevertheless extremely difficult, at such a distance, to produce the full evidence which might be desired of what every one knew to be the fact.

II. He then dwells at large on the evidence. (1.) That afforded by Mr. Hastings himself, in the contradictory nature of his various defenses before the House of Commons. (2.) That which went to show the character and station of the Begums, and their perfect right to the property they held. The latter is proved by the explicit decision of the Council at Calcutta, sanctioned by Mr. Hastings himself, after deliberate inquiry; and also by the guarantees of the Company, founded on that decision.

III. He briefly touches on the plea of State Necessity, and rejects it with indignation, as wholly inapplicable to a case like this.

IV. He takes up the treaty at Chunar for plundering the Begums, and the pretexts by which it had been justified. Here he comments with great severity on the conduct of Impey in taking the affidavits, and his appearance before the Lords as a witness-goes at great length in an examination of the affidavits-shows by a comparison of dates and by other circumstances, that the whole of this defense was an after-thought, resorted to by Mr. Hastings, subsequent to the treaty, to excuse his conduct—and that there were causes enough for the commotions in Oude, arising out of the oppression of the English, without any intervention of the Begums.

V. He describes the scenes connected with the resumption of the jaghires, and the cruelties inflicted upon the Begums and their ministers to extort the treasures.

VI. He charges all these crimes and cruelties upon Mr. Hastings, as committed by his authorized agents, and rendered necessary by his express instructions.

This speech, considered as a comment on evidence, is one of great ability, notwithstanding the imperfect manner in which it is reported. It was a task for which Mr. Sheridan's mind was peculiarly fitted. His keen sagacity, ready wit, and thorough knowledge of the human heart, had here the widest scope for their exercise. He shows uncommon tact in sifting testimony, detecting motives, and exposing the subterfuges, contradictions, and falsehoods of Mr. Hastings and his friends. Intermingled with the examination of the evidence, there is a great deal of keen satire and bitter sarcasm, which must have told powerfully on the audieuce, especially when set off by that easy, pointed, and humorous style of delivery, in which Mr. Sheridan so greatly excelled. When he rises into a higher strain, as in examining Mr. Hastings' plea of "state necessity," or describing the desperation of the natives, throwing themselves on the swords of the soldiery, under the cruel exactions of Major Hanney, he is truly and powerfully eloquent. His attempts to be pathetic or sentimental, as in his famous description of Filial Piety, are an utter failure. It is this passage, in connection with his constant tendency to strain after effect, which has led some, at the present day, to underrate the talents of Mr. Sheridan, and treat him as a mere ranter. His biographer, Mr. Moore, suggests that many of the blemishes in his printed speeches may be ascribed to the bad taste of his reporter, who makes even Mr. Fox talk, at times, in very lofty and extravagant language. This may to a certain extent be true, but we can not doubt that the "faults of taste" spoken of by Mr. Windham lay in this direction. Sheridan looked upon the audience in Westminster Hall with the eye of an actor. He saw the admirable opportunity which it afforded him for scenic effect; and he obviously resorted to clap-trap in many passages, which he contrived to make most of his audience feel were his best ones, when they were really his worst. Still, these form only a small part of the speech, and there are many passages to which we can not deny the praise of high and genuine eloquence.

SPEECH, &c.

With such views, we really, my Lords, lose sight of Mr. Hastings, who, however great in some other respects, is too insignificant to be blended with these important circumstances. The unfortunate prisoner is, at best, to my mind, no mighty object. Amid the series of mischiefs and enormities to my sense seeming to surround him, what is he but a petty nucleus, involved in its lamina, scarcely seen or heard of?

MY LORDS, I shall not waste your Lordships' | and by an honest solicitude for the honor of our time nor my own, by any preliminary observa- country, and the happiness of those who are untions on the importance of the subject before der its dominion and protection. you, or on the propriety of our bringing it in this solemn manner to a final decision. My honorable friend [Mr. Burke], the principal mover of the impeachment, has already executed the task in a way the most masterly and impressive. He, whose indignant and enterprising genius, roused by the calls of public justice, has, with unprecedented labor, perseverance, and eloquence, excited one branch of the Legislature to the vindication of our national character, and through whose means the House of Commons now makes this embodied stand in favor of man against man's iniquity, need hardly be followed on the general grounds of the prosecution.

ted by vindict

This prosecution, my Lords, was not, as is alleged, "begot in prejudice, and nursed in error." It originated in the clearest conviction of the wrongs which the natives of Hindostan have endured by the maladministration of those in whose Confiding in the dignity, the liberality, and in- hands this country had placed extensive powers; The prosecu telligence of the tribunal before which which ought to have been exercised for the bention not dicta I now have the honor to appear in my efit of the governed, but which was used by the ive feelings. delegated capacity of a manager, I do prisoner for the shameful purpose of oppression. not, indeed, conceive it necessary to engage your I repeat with emphasis, my Lords, that nothing Lordships' attention for a single moment with personal or malicious has induced us to institute any introductory animadversions. But there is this prosecution. It is absurd to suppose it. one point which here presents itself that it be- We come to your Lordships' bar as the reprecomes me not to overlook. Insinuations have sentatives of the Commons of England; and, as been thrown out that my honorable colleagues acting in this public capacity, it might as truly and myself are actuated by motives of malignity be said that the Commons, in whose name the against the unfortunate prisoner at the bar. An impeachment is brought before your Lordships, imputation of so serious a nature can not be per- were actuated by enmity to the prisoner, as that mitted to pass altogether without comment; we, their deputed organs, have any private spleen though it comes in so loose a shape, in such to gratify in discharging the duty imposed upon whispers and oblique hints as to prove to a us by our principals. certainty that it was made in the consciousness, and, therefore, with the circumspection of falsehood.

I can, my Lords, most confidently aver, that a prosecution more disinterested in all its motives and ends; more free from personal malice or personal interest; more perfectly public, and more purely animated by the simple and unmixed spirit of justice, never was brought in any country, at any time, by any body of men, against any individual. What possible resentment can we entertain against the unfortunate prisoner? What possible interest can we have in his conviction? What possible object of a personal nature can we accomplish by his ruin? For myself, my Lords, I make this solemn asseveration, that I discharge my breast of all malice, hatred, and ill will against the prisoner, if at any time indignation at his crimes has planted in it these passions; and I believe, my Lords, that I may with equal truth answer for every one of my colleagues.

We are, my Lords, anxious, in stating the crimes with which he is charged, to keep out of recollection the person of the unfortunate pris

oner.

In prosecuting him to conviction, we are impelled only by a sincere abhorrence of his guilt, and a sanguine hope of remedying future delinquency. We can have no private incentive to the part we have taken. We are actuated singly by the zeal we feel for the public welfare,

Hastings' life.

Your Lordships will also recollect and discriminate between impeachment for Does not encapital offenses and impeachment for danger Mr. high crimes and misdemeanors. In an impeachment of the former kind, when the life of an individual is to be forfeited on conviction, if malignity be indulged in giving a strong tincture and coloring to facts, the tenderness of man's nature will revolt at it; for, however strongly indignant we may be at the perpetration of offenses of a gross quality, there is a feeling that will protect an accused person from the influence of malignity in such a situation; but where no traces of this malice are discoverable, where no thirst for blood is seen, where, seeking for exemplary more than sanguinary justice, an impeachment is brought for high crimes and misdemeanors, malice will not be imputed to the prosecutors if, in illustration of the crimes alleged, they should adduce every possible circumstance in support of their allegations. Why will it not? Because their ends have nothing abhorrent to human tenderness. Because, in such a case as the present, for instance, all that is aimed at in convicting the prisoner is a temporary seclusion from the society of his countrymen, whose name he has tarnished by his crimes, and a deduction from the enormous spoils which he has accumulated by his greedy rapacity.

I. The only matter which I shall, in this stage

But though, my Lords, I designate the prisoner as a proper subject of exemplary Not to be con punishment, let it not be presumed out decisive that I wish to turn the sword of just- evidence. ice against him merely because some example is required. Such a wish is as remote from my heart as it is from equity and law. persuaded that it is impossible I should fail to The revenue of Oude, before its connection with render the evidence of his crimes as conclusive the English, exceeded three millions of pounds ster- as the effects of his conduct are confessedly afflictling a year, and was levied without any deteriorationing, I should blush at having selected him as an of the country. Within a very few years the country was reduced, by the exactions of the Company and its agents, in connection with the misgovernment of the Nabob, to the condition described above 'by Lord Cornwallis.