im with untold gold": and immediately follows,
"Guilty,--Death." This is the way in which, in our courts, character is
generally followed by sentence. The practice is not modern. Undoubtedly
Mr. Hastings has the example of criminals of high antiquity; for Caius
Verres, Antonius, and every other man who has been famous for the
pillage and destruction of provinces, never failed to bring before their
judges the attestations of the injured to their character. Voltaire
says, "_Les bons mots sont toujours redits_." A similar occasion has
here produced a similar conduct. He has got just the same character as
Caius Verres got in another cause; and the _laudationes_, which your
Lordships know always followed, to save trouble, we mean ourselves to
give your Lordships; we mean to give them with this strong presumption
of guilt, that in all this panegyric there is not one word of defence to
a single article of charge; they are mere lip-honors: but we think we
derive from those panegyrics, which Mr. Hastings has had sent over as
evidence to supply the total want of it, an indication of the
impossibility of attaining it. Mr. Hastings has brought them here, and I
must say we are under some difficulty about them, and the difficulty is
this. We think we can produce before your Lordships proofs of barbarity
and peculation by Mr. Hastings; we have the proofs of them in specific
provinces, where those proofs may be met by contrary proofs, or may lose
their weight from a variety of circumstances. We thought we had got the
matter sure, that everything was settled, that he could not escape us,
after he had himself confessed the bribes he had taken from the specific
provinces. But in what condition are we now? We have from those specific
provinces the strongest attestations that there is not any credit to be
paid to his own acknowledgments. In short, we have the complaints,
concerning these crimes of Mr. Hastings, of the injured persons
themselves; we have his own confessions; we shall produce both to your
Lordships. But these persons now declare, that not only their own
complaints are totally unfounded, but that Mr. Hastings's confessions
are not true, and not to be credited. These are circumstances which your
Lordships will consider in the view you take of this wonderful body of
attestation.

It is a pleasant thing to see in these addresses the different character
and modes of eloquence of different countries. In those that will be
brought b