quent.

Therefore, it is with confidence that, ordered by the Commons of Great
Britain, I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanors. I
impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament
assembled, whose parliamentary trust he has abused. I impeach him in the
name of the Commons of Great Britain, whose national character he has
dishonored. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose
laws, rights and liberties he has subverted. I impeach him in the name
of the people of India, whose property he has destroyed, whose country
he has laid waste and desolate. I impeach him in the name of human
nature itself, which he has cruelly outraged, injured and oppressed, in
both sexes. And I impeach him in the name and by the virtue of those
eternal laws of justice, which ought equally to pervade every age,
condition, rank, and situation in the world.

FOOTNOTE:

[29] On the 15th of February, 1788, Edmund Burke began a four days'
speech in the impeachment of Warren Hastings.

II. CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA[30]

Sir, I have in general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper
government; nor of any politics in which the plan is to be wholly
separated from the execution. But when I saw that anger and violence
prevailed every day more and more, and that things were hastening
towards an incurable alienation of our colonies, I confess my caution
gave way. I felt this as one of those few moments in which decorum
yields to a higher duty. Public calamity is a mighty leveler; and there
are occasions when any chance of doing good must be laid hold on, even
by the most inconsiderable person. To restore order and repose to an
empire so great and so distracted as ours, is, merely in the attempt, an
undertaking that would ennoble the flights of the highest genius, and
obtain pardon for the efforts of the meanest understanding.

The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not
peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless
negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord fomented, from
principle, in all parts of the empire. It is simple peace; sought in its
natural course, and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the
spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely pacific. I propose, by
removing the ground of the difference, and by restoring the former
unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in the Mother Country, to give
permanent satis