replied:--"My lords, I am come to this high
tribunal equally impressed with a confidence in my own integrity and in
the justice of the court before which I stand." After this the clerks of
the court proceeded to read the charges and answers, which occupied
the remainder of this day and the whole of the next; and when this was
completed, Burke, on the 15th of February, as the head of the committee
of managers, opened the impeachment by a speech which lasted four days.
He commenced by the following observations:--"My lords, the gentlemen
who have it in command to support this impeachment of Mr. Hastings,
have directed me to open the cause with a general view of the grounds on
which the commons have proceeded in their charge against him. They have
directed me to accompany this with another general view of the extent,
the magnitude, the nature, and the effect of the crimes which they
allege to have been committed. They have also directed me to give an
explanation of such circumstances preceding those crimes, or concomitant
with them, as may tend to elucidate whatever is obscure in the articles.
To those they have wished me to add a few illustrative remarks on the
laws, customs, opinions, and manners of the people who are the objects
of the crimes which we charge on Mr. Hastings." In following out the
course prescribed him, Burke in turns charmed, excited, and terrified
his audience, and produced all the effects attributed to the most
successful orators in the days of antiquity. His appeals to the feelings
and passions of his auditory were much too frequent, especially as
those parts of his speech were derived from the tales of the enemies of
Hastings; tales that were amplified and exaggerated, either by private
malevolence or by oriental hyperbole. Apart from this grand error,
however, Burke's speech was one of the finest that was ever delivered in
the English language. Parts of it were "soberly sublime," exhibiting a
wonderful range of knowledge, a high statesman-like philosophy, and a
fine spirit of Christian philanthropy. His arguments were enforced with
great acuteness, and were so powerful as almost to convince Hastings
himself that he was a guilty man. "For half an hour," said the accused,
"I looked up at the orator in a reverie of wonder; and, during that
space, I actually felt myself the most culpable man on earth; but I
recurred to my own bosom, and there found a consciousness that consoled
me under all I heard and