speech with moving, '"That it appears to this house that great abuses
have prevailed in the post-office, and that, the same being made known
to his majesty's ministers, it is their duty, without loss of time, to
make use of such measures as are in their power to reform them." The
post-office was defended by Pitt and Lord Maitland, the latter of whom
moved, first, the previous question, and then that the report should be
put off for three months, both of which motions were carried without a
division. The debate on this question was not only remarkable for the
awkward disclosures concerning the practices in the post-office which
were thereby elicited, but for the personalities in which honourable
members indulged; especially Pitt, Fox, Grey, and Sheridan. The effect
produced out of doors by it were very prejudicial to Pitt and his party,
for the report of the committee went to show that great abuses existed,
and yet all inquiry was nipped in the bud by a ministerial majority.
To have sustained his character as a reformer of abuses, Pitt ought,
certainly, to have acted firmly in the matter; but instead of this he
chose to attribute the part which Mr. Grey had taken to his youth and
inexperience. Pitt himself was only twenty-eight years of age, and after
he sat down, Sheridan rose, and in a merry mood ridiculed the gravity
with which an unmerited reproof had been bestowed upon his friend,
by "the veteran statesman of four years' experience; the Nestor of
twenty-eight!"

IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.

During the previous debates, Burke had not been idle with his
impeachment of Hastings. On the first day of the session he gave notice
that he should resume proceedings on the 1st of February. It was not,
however, till the 7th of that month that any other direct charge was
entered into; and then Sheridan brought forward that which related to
the resumption of the jaghires, and the confiscation of the treasures
of the Begums, or Princesses of Oude, the mother and grandmother of the
reigning nabob. Imperfect records of the brilliant speech which Sheridan
uttered on this occasion, and which occupied five hours in the delivery,
now remain, but of its force some faint idea may be formed, by the
following brief extract. The orator remarked:--"The conduct of Mr.
Hastings, respecting the Nabob and Begums of Oude, comprehends in it
every species of human offence. He has been guilty of rapacity, at
once violent and insatiable; of