was not
until February 13 of the following year, 1788, that the impeached man
was brought to his trial in Westminster Hall.

Before the trial began, popular feeling was roused against Hastings
more keenly by the action of the Court than by the action of Burke and
of his colleagues. The Court was inclined to be even more than
friendly to Hastings and to his wife, and both Hastings and his wife,
who were not in touch with English public opinion, took the unwise
course of making the very most of the royal favor, and of displaying
themselves as much as possible in the royal sunlight. The London
public, always jealous of any Court favoritism, resented the patronage
of Hastings, and while it was in this temper an event took place which
served to heighten its resentment. The Nizam of the Deccan had sent a
very magnificent diamond to the King as a present, and, being ignorant
of what was going on in England, he chose Hastings, naturally enough,
as the medium through which to convey his diamond to the King.
Hastings, with the want of judgment which characterized him at this
time, accepted a duty which, delicate at any {282} time, became under
the conditions positively dangerous. He was present at the Levee at
which the diamond was presented to the King. Immediately rumor seized
upon the incident and distorted it. It was confidently asserted that
Hastings was bribing the Sovereign with vast presents of precious
stones to use his influence in his behalf. The solitary diamond became
in the popular eye more numerous than the stones that Sinbad came upon
in the enchanted valley. The print-shops teemed with caricatures, all
giving some highly colored exaggeration of the prevailing impression.
Every possible pictorial device which could suggest to the passer-by
that Hastings was buying the protection of the King by fabulous gifts
of diamonds was made public. In one Hastings was shown flinging
quantities of precious stones into the open mouth of the King. In
another he was represented as having bought the King bodily, crown and
sceptre and all, with his precious stones, and as carrying him away in
a wheelbarrow. So high did popular feeling run that the great diamond
became the hero of a discussion in the House of Commons, when Major
Scott was obliged to make a statement in his chief's behalf giving an
accurate account of what had really occurred.

The trial of Warren Hastings is one of the most remarkable examples of
contr