if one out of the choir of the heavenly angels were sent to govern the earth, such is the nature of man, that many would be found discontented with it.  But these people have no complaint, they feel no hardships, no sorrow; Mr. Hastings has realized more than the golden age.  I am ashamed for human nature, I am ashamed for our government, I am ashamed for this court of justice, that these things are brought before us; but here they are, and we must observe upon them.

* * * * *

My Lords, we have done, on our part; we have made out our case; and it only remains for me to make a few observations upon what Mr. Hastings has thought proper to put forward in his defence.  Does he meet our case with anything but these general attestations, upon which I must first remark, that there is not one single matter of fact touched upon in them?  Your Lordships will observe, and you may hunt them out through the whole body of your minutes, that you do not find a single fact mentioned in any of them.  But there is an abundance of panegyric; and if we were doing nothing but making satires, as the newspapers charge us with doing, against Mr. Hastings, panegyric would be a good answer.

But Mr. Hastings sets up pleas of merit upon this occasion.  Now, undoubtedly, no plea of merit can be admitted to extinguish, as your Lordships know very well, a direct charge of crime.  Merit cannot extinguish crime.  For instance, if Lord Howe, to whom this country owes so much as it owes this day for the great and glorious victory which makes our hearts glad, and I hope will insure the security of this country,—­yet if Lord Howe, I say, was charged with embezzling the King’s stores, or applying them in any manner unbecoming his situation, to any shameful or scandalous purpose,—­if he was accused of taking advantage of his station, to oppress any of the captains of his ships,—­if he was stated to have gone into a port of the allies of this country, and to have plundered the inhabitants, to have robbed their women, and broken into the recesses of their apartments,—­if he had committed atrocities like these, his glorious victory could not change the nature and quality of such acts.  My Lord Malmesbury has been lately sent to the King of Prussia; we hope and trust that his embassy will be successful, and that this country will derive great benefit from his negotiations; but if Lord Malmesbury, from any subsidy that was to be paid to the King of Prussia, was to put 50,000_l._ in his own pocket, I believe that his making a good and advantageous treaty with the King of Prussia would never be thought a good defence for him.  We admit, that, if a man has done great and eminent services, though they cannot be a defence against a charge of crimes, and cannot obliterate them, yet, when sentence comes to be passed upon such a man, you will consider, first, whether his transgressions were common lapses of human frailty, and whether the nature and weight of the grievances