Lord
George Gordon."

For six days London was at the mercy of a furious mob of 50,000
people, who set fire to Catholic chapels, pillaged many dwellings, and
committed every species of outrage. Newgate prison was broken into,
the prisoners were released, and the prison was burned. No one was
safe from attack who did not wear a blue cockade to show that he was a
Protestant, and no man's house was secure unless he chalked "No
Popery" on the door in conspicuous letters. In fact, one individual,
in order to make doubly sure, wrote over the entrance to his
residence: "No Religion Whatever." Before the riot was subdued a large
amount of property had been destroyed and many lives sacrificed.

555. Impeachment of Warren Hastings (1788).

Six years after the American Revolution came to an end Warren
Hastings, Governor-General of India, was impeached for corrupt and
cruel government in that distant province. He was tried before the
House of Lords, gathered in Westminster Hall. On the side of Hastings
was the powerful East India Company, ruling over a territory many
times larger than the whole of Great Britain. Against him were
arrayed the three ablest and most eloquent men in England,--Burke,
Fox, and Sheridan.

"Raising his voice until the oak ceiling resounded, Burke exclaimed at
the close of his fourth great speech, `I impeach Warren Hastings of
high crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of the
Commons of Great Britain, whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach him
in the name of the English nation, whose ancient honor he has
sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose
rights he has trodden under foot, and whose country he has turned into
a desert. Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name of
both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every rank, I
impeach the common enemy and oppressor of all!'"

The trial was continued at intervals for over seven years. It
resulted in the acquittal of the accused (1795); but it was proved
that the chief business of those who went out to India was to wring
fortunes from the natives, and then go back to England to live like
"nabobs," and spend their ill-gotten money in a life of luxury. This
fact, and the stupendous corruption that was shown to exist,
eventually broke down the gigantic monopoly, and British India was
thrown open to the trade of all nations.[1]

[1] See Macaulay's "Essay on Warren Hastings"; also Burke's