do not set the example. They have very lately sat
in the Colchester Committee as many, within one or two, days
successively as have been spent in this trial interruptedly in the
course of two years. Every cause deserves that it should be tried
according to its nature and circumstances; and in the case of the
Colchester Committee, in the trial of paltry briberies of odd pounds,
shillings, and pence, in the corruption of a returning officer, who is
but a miller, they spent nearly the same number of days that we have
been inquiring into the ruin of kingdoms by the peculation and bribery
of the chief governor of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa.
Therefore God forbid that we should faint at thrice thirty days, if the
proceedings should be drawn into such a length, when for a small crime
as much time has been spent as has yet been spent in this great cause!

Having now cleared the way with regard to the local and temporary
circumstances of this case,--having shown your Lordships that too much
time has not been spent in it,--having no reason to think, from the time
which has hitherto been spent, that time will be unnecessarily spent in
future,--I trust your Lordships will think that time ought neither to be
spared nor squandered in this business: we will therefore proceed,
article by article, as far as the discretion of the House of Commons
shall think fit, for the justice of the case, to limit the inquiry, or
to extend it.

We are now going to bring before your Lordships the sixth article. It is
an article of charge of bribery and corruption against Mr. Hastings; but
yet we must confess that we feel some little difficulty _in limine_. We
here appear in the name and character not only of representatives of the
Commons of Great Britain, but representatives of the inhabitants of
Bengal: and yet we have had lately come into our hands such ample
certificates, such full testimonials, from every person in whose cause
we complain, that we shall appear to be in the strangest situation in
the world,--the situation of persons complaining, who are disavowed by
the persons in whose name and character they complain. This would have
been a very great difficulty in the beginning, especially as it is come
before us in a flood-tide of panegyric. No encomium can be more exalted
or more beautifully expressed. No language can more strongly paint the
perfect satisfaction, the entire acquiescence, of all the nations of
Bengal, and their