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"the wars which were of your formation, or "that of others, not of mine. I won one mem "ber of the great Indian confederacy from it,

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by an act of seasonable restitution; with an

other, I maintained a secret intercourse, and "converted him into a friend; a third, I drew "off by diversion and negotiation, and employed him as the instrument of peace. When

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you cried out for peace, and your cries were "heard by those who were the objects of it, I "resisted this and every other species of coun

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teraction, by rising in my demands, and accomplished a peace, and I hope an everlast

ing one, with one great state; and I at "least afforded the efficient means by which "a peace, if not so durable, more seasonable at least, was accomplished with another. I

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gave you all; and you have rewarded me "with confiscation, disgrace and a life of im"peachment."

Comparing our conduct with that of the people of India, he says, They manifested a "generosity, of which we have no example in "the European world. Their conduct was the "effect of their sense of gratitude for the be"nefits they had received from my adminis"tration. I wish I could say as much of my 66 own countrymen."

My Lords, here then we have the Prisoner at

your

your bar in his demeanour not defending himself, but recriminating upon his country; charging it with perfidy, ingratitude and oppression, and making a comparison of it with the Banyans of India, whom he prefers to the Commons of Great Britain.

My Lords, what shall we say to this demeanour? With regard to the charge of using him with ingratitude, there are two points to be considered. First, the charge implies that he had rendered great services; and secondly, that he has been falsely accused.

My Lords, as to the great services, they have not, they cannot come in evidence before you. If you have received such evidence, you have received it obliquely; for there is no other direct proof before your Lordships of such services, than that of there having been great distresses and great calamities in India, during his government. Upon these distresses and calamities, he has, indeed, attempted to justify obliquely the corruption that has been charged upon him: but you have not properly in issue these services. You cannot admit the evidence of any such services received directly from him, as a matter of recriminatory charge upon the House of Commons, because you have not suffered that House to examine into the validity and merit of this plea. We have not been heard upon this recriminatory

recriminatory charge, which makes a considerable part of the demeanour of the Prisoner; we cannot be heard upon it; and therefore I demand, on the part of the Commons of Great Britain, that it be dismissed from your consideration; and this I demand, whether you take it as an attempt to render odious the conduct of the Commons; whether you take it in mitigation of the punishment due to the Prisoner for his crimes; or whether it be adduced as a presumption, that so virtuous a servant never could be guilty of the offences with which we charge him. In which ever of these lights you may be inclined to consider this matter, I say you have it not in evidence before you; and therefore you must expunge it from your thoughts, and separate it entirely from your judgment. I shall hereafter have occasion to say a few words on this subject of merits. I have said thus much at present, in order to remove extraneous impressions from your minds. For admitting that your Lordships are the best judges, as I well know that you are, yet I cannot say that you are not men, and that matter of this kind, however irrelevant, may not make an impression upon you. It does, therefore, become us to take some occasional notice of these supposed services, not in the way of argument, but with a view by one sort of prejudice to destroy another prejudice. VOL. XV. C

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If there is any thing in evidence which tends to destroy this plea of merits, we shall recur to that evidence; if there is nothing to destroy it but argument, we shall have recourse to that argument; and if we support that argument by authority and document, not in your Lordships' minutes, I hope it will not be the less considered as good argument, because it is so supported.

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I must now call your Lordships' attention from the vaunted services of the Prisoner, which have been urged to convict us of ingratitude, to another part of his recriminatory defence. He says, my Lords, that we have not only oppressed him with unjust charges (which is a matter for your Lordships to judge, and is now the point at issue between us,) but that instead of attacking him by fair judicial modes of proceeding, by stating crimes clearly and plainly, and by prov ing those crimes, and shewing their necessary consequences, we have oppressed him with all sorts of foul and abusive language; so much so, that every part of our proceeding has, in the eye of the world, more the appearance of private revenge, than of publick justice.

Against this impudent and calumnious recriminatory accusation, which your Lordships have thought good to suffer him to utter here, at a time too when all dignity is in danger of being trodden under foot, we will say nothing by way

of defence, The Commons of Great Britain, my Lords, are a rustick people; a tone of rusticity is therefore the proper accent of their managers. We are not acquainted with the urbanity and politeness of extortion and oppression nor do we know any thing of the sentimental delicacies of bribery and corruption. We speak the language of truth, and we speak it in the plain simple terms in which truth ought to be spoken. Even if we have any thing to answer for on this head, we can only answer to the body which we represent and to that body which hears us; to any others we owe no apology whatever.

The Prisoner at your bar admits that the crimes which we charge him with are of that atrocity, that if brought home to him he merits. death. Yet when in pursuance of our duty, we come to state these crimes with their proper criminatory epithets, when we state in strong and direct terms the circumstances which heighten and aggravate them, when we dwell on the immoral and heinous nature of the acts, aud the terrible effects which such acts produce, and when we offer to prove both the principal facts, and the aggravatory ones by evidence, and to shew their nature and quality by the rules of law, morality, and policy, then this Criminal, then his counsel, then his accomplices

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