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THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS
My lords, you have now heard the principles on which Mr. Hastings governs the part of Asia subjected to the British Empire. Here he has declared his opinion that he is a despotic prince; that he is to use arbitrary power; and, of course, all his acts are covered with that shield. "I know," says he, "the Constitution of Asia only from its practise." Will your lordships submit to hear the corrupt practises of mankind made the principles of government? He have arbitrary power!—my lords, the East India Company have not arbitrary power to give him; the king has no arbitrary power to give him; your
- ↑ From his speech before the High Court of Impeachment, in Westminster Hall, February, 1788. It was of this speech that Hastings said, "For the first half hour, I looked up to the orator in a reverie of wonder, and during that time I felt myself the most culpable man on earth." Burke spoke during four sittings, beginning on February 13. Macaulay in his essay on Warren Hastings, has described this memorable scene:
'There have been spectacles more dazzling to the eye, more gorgeous with jewelry and cloth of gold, more attractive to grown up children, than that which was then exhibited at Westminster, but perhaps, there was never a spectacle so well calculated to strike a highly cultivated, a reflecting, an imaginative mind. All the various kinds of interest which belong to the near and to the distant, to the present, and to the past, were collected on one spot, and in one hour. All the talents and all the accomplishments
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