the almost
uninterrupted tenor of parliamentary usage. It states that the opinions
were given, not on the law, but on the case. It states that the mode of
giving opinions was unprecedented, and contrary to the privileges of
the house of commons. It states that the committee did not know on what
rules and principles the judges had decided in those cases, as they
neither heard them, nor are they entered on the journals. It is very
true that we were and are extremely dissatisfied with those opinions,
and the consequent determination of the lords; and we do not think such
a mode of proceeding at all justified by the most numerous and best
precedents. The report speaks for itself: whenever an occasion shall
be regularly given to maintain everything of substance in that paper, I
shall be ready to meet the proudest name for ability, learning, or
rank, which this kingdom contains on that subject." This reply of Burke
contains an allusion to the result of this long-pending trial, as will
be seen. Hastings was acquitted. As for the gauntlet which Burke threw
down, no one seemed inclined to take it up; and Burke soon after quitted
the house of commons for ever, he accepting the Chiltern Hundreds. But
before Burke left the house, Pitt moved the thanks of the commons to him
and the other managers, "for their faithful management in discharge of
the trust reposed in them." This motion was carried; and Burke in his
reply observed, that prejudices against himself, arising from personal
friendship or obligations to the accused, were too laudable for him to
be discomposed at them. He had thrown out no general reflections on the
Company's servants; he had merely-repeated what Mr. Hastings himself
had said of the troops serving in Oude, and the house had marked
their opinion of the officers in the very terms he used. As for other
expressions attributed to him, they had been much exaggerated and
misrepresented. This was the last day that this philosophical statesman
took his seat in the house of commons. Among his last words were a
warning to the country to beware of the fate of France. But this warning
was now scarcely needed. He had sounded the trumpet of alarm with such
effect for several sessions, that the nation was roused to a sense
of danger, and was prepared to ward off the blow by its most vigorous
efforts. He had rendered a noble service, not only to his own
generation, but to posterity--not only to his own country, but to every
na