en on the 17th day of the same month of March, to this
effect: That your Committee do report to this House the several matters
which have occurred since the commencement of the said prosecution, and
which have, in their opinion, contributed to the duration thereof to the
present time, with their observations thereupon.

Your Committee is sensible that the duration of the said trial, and the
causes of that duration, as well as the matters which have therein
occurred, do well merit the attentive consideration of this House. We
have therefore endeavored with all diligence to employ the powers that
have been granted and to execute the orders that have been given to us,
and to report thereon as speedily as possible, and as fully as the time
would admit.

Your Committee has considered, first, the mere fact of the duration of
the trial, which they find to have commenced on the 13th day of
February, 1788, and to have continued, by various adjournments, to the
said 17th of March. During that period the sittings of the Court have
occupied one hundred and eighteen days, or about one third of a year.
The distribution of the sitting days in each year is as follows.

Days.
In the year 1788, the Court sat 35
1789, 17
1790, 14
1791, 5
1792, 22
1793, 22
1794, to the 1st of March, inclusive 3
----
Total 118

Your Committee then proceeded to consider the causes of this duration,
with regard to time as measured by the calendar, and also as measured by
the number of days occupied in actual sitting. They find, on examining
the duration of the trial with reference to the number of years which
it has lasted, that it has been owing to several prorogations and to one
dissolution of Parliament; to discussions which are supposed to have
arisen in the House of Peers on the legality of the continuance of
impeachments from Parliament to Parliament; that it has been owing to
the number and length of the adjournments of the Court, particularly the
adjournments on account of the Circuit, which adjournments were
interposed in the middle of the session, a