of Hastings, and by arguing that abuses so extraordinary justified extraordinary measures.  Those who, by opposing that bill, had raised themselves to the head of affairs, would naturally be inclined to extenuate the evils which had been made the plea for administering so violent a remedy; and such, in fact, was their general disposition.  The Lord Chancellor Thurlow, in particular, whose great place and force of intellect gave him a weight in the Government inferior only to that of Mr. Pitt, espoused the cause of Hastings with indecorous violence.  Mr. Pitt, though he had censured many parts of the Indian system, had studiously abstained from saying a word against the late chief of the Indian Government.  To Major Scott, indeed, the young minister had in private extolled Hastings as a great, a wonderful man, who had the highest claims on the Government.  There was only one objection to granting all that so eminent a servant of the public could ask.  The resolution of censure still remained on the journals of the House of Commons.  That resolution was, indeed, unjust; but, till it was rescinded, could the minister advise the King to bestow any mark of approbation on the person censured?  If Major Scott is to be trusted, Mr. Pitt declared that this was the only reason which prevented the advisers of the Crown from conferring a peerage on the late Governor-General.  Mr. Dundas was the only important member of the administration who was deeply committed to a different view of the subject.  He had moved the resolution which created the difficulty; but even from him little was to be apprehended.  Since he had presided over the committee on Eastern affairs, great changes had taken place.  He was surrounded by new allies; he had fixed his hopes on new objects; and whatever may have been his good qualities,—­and he had many,—­ flattery itself never reckoned rigid consistency in the number.

From the Ministry, therefore, Hastings had every reason to expect support; and the Ministry was very powerful.  The Opposition was loud and vehement against him.  But the Opposition, though formidable from the wealth and influence of some of its members, and from the admirable talents and eloquence of others, was outnumbered in Parliament, and odious throughout the country.  Nor, as far as we can judge, was the Opposition generally desirous to engage in so serious an undertaking as the impeachment of an Indian Governor.  Such an impeachment must last for years.  It must impose on the chiefs of the party an immense load of labour.  Yet it could scarcely, in any manner, affect the event of the great political game.  The followers of the coalition were therefore more inclined to revile Hastings than to prosecute him.  They lost no opportunity of coupling his name with the names of the most hateful tyrants of whom history makes mention.  The wits of Brooks’s aimed their keenest sarcasms both at his public and at his domestic life.  Some fine diamonds which he had presented, as it was