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tears and stormy reproaches. If those men, once so dear to each other, were now compelled to meet for the purpose of managing the impeachment, they met as strangers whom public business had brought together, and behaved to each other with cold and distant civility. Burke had in his vortex whirled away Windham. Fox had been followed by Sheridan and Grey.

Only twenty-nine peers voted. Of these only six found Hastings guilty, on the charges relating to Cheyte Sing and to the Begums. On other charges the majority in his favor was still greater. On some he was unanimously absolved. He was then called to the bar, informed from the woolsack that the Lords had acquitted him, and solemnly discharged. He bowed respectfully, and retired.

We have said that the decision had been fully expected. It was also generally approved. At the commencement of the trial there had been a strong and indeed unreasonable feeling against Hastings. At the close of the trial, there was a feeling equally strong and equally unreasonable in his favor. The length of his trial made him an object of compassion. It was thought, and not without reason, that, even if he was guilty, he was still an ill-used man, and that an impeachment of eight years was more than a sufficient punishment. It was also felt that, though, in the ordinary course of criminal law, a defendant is not allowed to set off his good actions against his crimes, a great political cause should be tried on different principles; and that a man who had governed a great country during thirteen years might have done some very reprehensible things, and yet might be on the whole deserving of rewards and honors.-LORD MACAULAY.

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THE first William Pitt, the greatest English statesman of the eighteenth century, was long distinguished as the "Great Commoner," but became towards the close of his life Earl of Chatham. His genius largely extended the British dominions in both hemispheres; but owing to the stupid obstinacy of George III., was unable to avert the loss to the crown of valuable possessions which might have been retained had the

king heeded his wisdom and followed his counsels.

William Pitt was born on November 15, 1708. His father was Robert Pitt, of Boconnoc, in Cornwall, who had married Harriet Villiers, a sister to the Earl of Grandison. The son received the early part of his education at Eton, and at the age of eighteen entered Trinity College, Oxford, as a gentleman-commoner. His health obliged him to quit this famous seat of learning without taking a degree, and to travel on the Continent. On his return his friends obtained for him a commission as cornet in the Blues. Sir Robert Walpole, the great minister, who established the Hanoverian succession, following his relentles system of party warfare, deprived young Pitt of his petty position in the army.

At the age of twenty-eight Pitt entered Parliament for the family borough of Old Sarum, whose name was prominent in the struggle for Parliamentary Reform in the next century. Pitt immediately joined the opposition, which placed the name of Frederic, Prince of Wales, at its head. The most

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THE EARL OF CHATHAM IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

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