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My Lords, in the progress of this impeachment, you have heard our charges; you have heard the prisoner’s plea of merits; you have heard our observations on them.  In the progress of this impeachment, you have seen the condition in which Mr. Hastings received Benares; you have seen the condition in which Mr. Hastings received the country of the Rohillas; you have seen the condition in which he received the country of Oude; you have seen the condition in which he received the provinces of Bengal; you have seen the condition of the country when the native government was succeeded by that of Mr. Hastings; you have seen the happiness and prosperity of all its inhabitants, from those of the highest to those of the lowest rank.  My Lords, you have seen the very reverse of all this under the government of Mr. Hastings,—­the country itself, all its beauty and glory, ending in a jungle for wild beasts.  You have seen flourishing families reduced to implore that pity which the poorest man and the meanest situation might very well call for.  You have seen whole nations in the mass reduced to a condition of the same distress.  These things in his government at home.  Abroad, scorn, contempt, and derision cast upon and covering the British name, war stirred up, and dishonorable treaties of peace made, by the total prostitution of British faith.  Now take, my Lords, together, all the multiplied delinquencies which we have proved, from the highest degree of tyranny to the lowest degree of sharping and cheating, and then judge, my Lords, whether the House of Commons could rest for one moment, without bringing these matters, which have baffled all legislation at various times, before you, to try at last what judgment will do.  Judgment is what gives force, effect, and vigor to laws; laws without judgment are contemptible and ridiculous; we had better have no laws than laws not enforced by judgments and suitable penalties upon delinquents.  Revert, my Lords, to all the sentences which have heretofore been passed by this high court; look at the sentence passed upon Lord Bacon, look at the sentence passed upon Lord Macclesfield; and then compare the sentences which your ancestors have given with the delinquencies which were then before them, and you have the measure to be taken in your sentence upon the delinquent now before you.  Your sentence, I say, will be measured according to that rule which ought to direct the judgment of all courts in like cases, lessening it for a lesser offence, and aggravating it for a greater, until the measure of justice is completely full.

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My Lords, I have done; the part of the Commons is concluded.  With a trembling solicitude we consign this product of our long, long labors to your charge.  Take it!—­take it!  It is a sacred trust.  Never before was a cause of such magnitude submitted to any human tribunal.