SHERIDAN. 533 parison with the disgusting hypocrisy, and unequalled baseness which Mr. Hastings had shewn on that occasion But there were some, who found an apology for the atrocity of these crimes, in the greatness of his mind;- but does not this quality arise out of great actions, directed to great ends? In them, and in them alone, we are to search for true and estimable mag nanimity; to them only can we justly affix the splendid title and honours of real greatness. His course was an eternal deviation from rectitude,- he pursued the worst objects by the worst means,—he either tyrannised or deceived; and was by turns a Dionysius and a Scapin. As well might the writhing obliquity of the serpent be compared to the swift directness of the arrow, as the duplicity of Mr. Hastings's ambition, to the simple steadiness of genuine magnanimity. In his mind a l l was shuffling, ambi guous, dark, insidious, and little; nothing simple, nothing unmixed; all affected plainness and actual dissimulation;–a heterogeneous mass o f contradictory qualities; with nothing great but his crimes; and even these, contrasted by the littleness o f his motives, which a t once denoted both his baseness and his meanness, and marked him for a traitor and a trickster.” Mr. Sheridan now shewed, by evidence, that the twofold accusation against the Begums was unjust; and that, first, they were not the ancient disturbers o f the government; aud, secondly, that the charge o f having induced the Jaghierdars t o resist the Nabob, was n o less untrue—the fact, indeed, being fully substantiated, that n o one o f these ever did resist. He stated i t t o b e incontrovertible, “that the Begums were not concerned either i n the rebellion o f Bulbudder, o r the insurrection a t Benares; nor did Mr. Hastings ever once seriously think them guilty. Their treasures were their treason; and Asoph u l Dowlah thought like a n unwise prince, when h e blamed his father for bequeathing him s o little wealth. His father, Sujah u l Dowlah, acted wisely i n leaving his son with no temptation about him, t o invite acts o f violence and rapacity. He clothed him with poverty a s with a shield, and armed him with necessity a s with a sword!—The third charge was equally false, did they resist the resumption o f their own Jaghierdars? Although they had resisted, there would not have been any crime, seeing that these were confirmed b y solemn treaty; yet the Nabob himself, with a l l the load o f obloquy imputed t o him, never s o much a s accused them o f stirring up opposition t o his authority. To prove the falsehood o f the whole o f this charge, and t o shew that Mr. Hastings originally projected the plunder; that h e threw the whole odium i n the first instance o n the Nabob
and that h e imputed the crimes t o them before he had received one of the rumours which he afterwards manufac tured into affidavits, would b e seen from the dates o f the various papers now about t o b e adduced; which would also implicate Mr. Middleton and Sir Elijah Impey. “The Begums, by condition, b y age, and b y infirmities, were almost the only persons i n India, who could not have thought o f distressing that government, b y which alone they could hope t o b e protected; and t o charge them with a design t o depose their nearest and dearest relatives, was equally odious and absurd. To ascribe t o the princesses those insur rections which had constantly taken place i n Oude, was wandering even
