114 TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS. . learning, the representatives of every science and of every art. There were seated round the queen the fair-haired young daughters of the house of Brunswick. There the ambassadors of great kings and commonwealths gazed with admiration on a spectacle which no other country in the world could present. There the historian of the Roman empire thought of the days when Cicero pleaded the cause of Sicily against Verres; and when, before a Senate that still retained some show of freedom, Tacitus thundered against the oppressor of Africa. And there the ladies, whose lips, more persuasive than those of Fox himself, had carried the Westminster election against palace and treasury, shone round Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. He The serjeants made proclamation.. Hastings advanced to the bar and bent his knee. The culprit was, indeed, not unworthy that great presence. had ruled an extensive and populous country; had made laws and treaties; had sent forth armies; had set up and pulled down princes. In his high place he had so borne himself, that all had feared him, that most had loved him, and that hatred itself could deny him no title to glory except virtue. The charges and answers of Hastings were first read. This ceremony occupied two whole days. On the third day Burke rose. With an exuberance of thought and a splendor of diction which more than satisfied the highly-raised expectation of the audience, he described the character and institutions of the people of India, recounted the circumstances in which the Asiatic empire of Britain had originated, and set forth the constitution of the company and the Eng CICERO AGAINST VERRES. 115 lish presidencies. He then proceeded to arraign the administration of Hastings as conducted in defiance of morality and public law. The energy and pathos of the great orator extorted expressions of unwonted admiration from the stern and hostile chancellor, and, for a moment, seemed to pierce the resolute heart of the defendant. The ladies in the galleries, unaccustomed to such displays of cloquence, and excited by the solemnity of the occasion, were in a state of uncontrollable emotion. At length the orator concluded. Raising his voice. till the old arches of Irish oak resounded, “Therefore," said he, "hath it with all confidence been ordered by the Commons of Great Britain that I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of the Commons' House of Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose ancient honors he has sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose rights he has trodden under foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert. Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every rank, I impeach the common enemy and oppressor of all.” 53. CICERO AGAINST VERRES. HERE is now to be brought on trial before you opinion of all impartial persons, but who, according to his own reckoning, and declared dependence 116 CICERO AGAINST VERRES. upon his riches, is already acquitted.. I mean Caius Verres. If that sentence is passed upon him which his crimes deserve, your authority, Fathers, will be venerable and sacred in the eyes of the public. But if his great riches should bias you in his favor, I shall still gain one point, which is, to make it apparent to all the world that what was wanting in this case was not a criminal nor a prosecutor, but justice and adequate punishment. His whole life has been a continued series of the most atrocious crimes; but his pretorship in Sicily crowns all his works of wickedness, and finishes a lasting monument to his infamy. The sums he has, by arbitrary taxes and unheard-of impositions, extorted from the industrious poor, are not to be computed. The most faithful allies of the commonwealth have been treated as enemies. Roman citizens have, like slaves, been put to death with tortures. The most atrocious criminals, for money have been exempted from deserved punishments; and men of the most unexceptionable characters condemned and banished. unheard. Had any prince or any state committed the same outrages against the privilege of Roman citizens, should we not think we had sufficient ground for declaring immediate war against them? What punishment ought, then, to be inflicted upon a tyrannical and wicked pretor who dared, at no greater distance than Sicily, within sight of the Italian coast, to put to the infamous death of crucifixion that unfortunate and innocent citizen, Publius Gavius Cosanus, only for asserting his privilege of citizenship, and declaring his intention of appealing to the justice of his CICERO AGAINST VERRES. 117 country against a cruel oppressor, who had unjustly confined him in prison at Syracuse, from whence he had just made his escape? The unhappy man, arrested as he was going to embark for his native country, is brought before the wicked pretor. With eyes darting fury, and a countenance distorted with cruelty, he orders the helpless victim of his rage to be stripped, and rods to be brought; accusing him, but without the least shadow of evidence, or even of suspicion, of having come to Sicily as a spy. It is in vain that the unhappy man cried out, "I am a Roman citizen. I have served under Lucius Pretius, who is now at Panormus, and will attest my innocence." The bloodthirsty pretor, deaf to all he could urge in his own defence, ordered the infamous punishment to be inflicted. Thus, Fathers, was an innocent Roman citizen publicly mangled with scourging, whilst the only words he uttered amidst his cruel sufferings were, "I am a Roman citizen." With these he hoped to defend himself from violence and infamy. But of so little service was this privilege to him, that while he was thus asserting his citizenship, the order was given for his execution - for his execution upon the cross! O Liberty!-0 sound once delightful to every Roman ear! O sacred privilege of Roman citizenship!once sacred, now trampled upon! - But what then? Is it come to this? Shall an inferior magistrate, a governor, who holds his whole power of the Roman people, in a Roman province, within sight of Italy, bind, scourge, torture with fire and red-hot plates of iron, and at last put to the infamous death of the cross, a Roman citizen? Shall neither the 118 TRUE KINGS OF THE EARTH. cries of innocence expiring in agony, nor the tears of pitying spectators, nor the majesty of the Roman commonwealth, nor the fear of the justice of his country, restrain the licentious and wanton cruelty of a monster, who, in confidence of his riches, strikes at the root of liberty, and sets mankind at defiance? I conclude with expressing my hopes that your wisdom and justice, Fathers, will not, by suffering the atrocious and unexampled insolence of Caius Verres to escape due punishment, leave room to apprehend the danger of a total subversion of authority, and introduction of general anarchy and confusion. MIGHTY of heart, mighty of mind "magnani mous -to be this is indeed to be great in life; to become this unceasingly is indeed to "advance in life" — in life itself—not in the trappings of it. Do you remember that old Scythian custom? How, when the head of a house died, he was dressed in his finest dress, and set in his chariot, and carried about to his friends' houses; and each of them placed him at his table's head, and all feasted in his presence. Suppose it were offered to you in plain words, as it is offered to you in dire facts, that you should gain this Scythian honor, gradually, while you yet thought yourself alive. Suppose the offer were this: You shall die slowly; your blood shall daily grow cold, your flesh petrify, your heart beat at last only as a rusted group of iron valves. Your life shall fade from you, and sink through the earth into the ice of |