e
guilt,--that we are to go further, show the mischievous consequences and
tendency of those crimes to society,--and that we are, if able so to do,
to arouse and awaken in the minds of all that hear us those generous and
noble sympathies which Providence has planted in the breasts of all men,
to be the true guardians of the common rights of humanity. Your
Lordships know that this is the duty of the prosecutors, and that
therefore we are not to consider the defence of the party, which is
wisely and properly left to himself; but we are to press the accusation
with all the energy of which it is capable, and to come with minds
perfectly convinced before an august and awful tribunal which at once
tries the accuser and the accused.

Having stated thus much with respect to the Commons, I am to read to
your Lordships the resolution which the Commons have come to upon this
great occasion, and upon which I shall take the liberty to say a very
few words.

My Lords, the Commons have resolved last night, and I did not see the
resolution till this morning, "that no direction or authority was given
by this House to the committee appointed to manage the impeachment
against Warren Hastings, Esquire, to make any charge or allegation
against the said Warren Hastings respecting the condemnation or
execution of Nundcomar; and that the words spoken by the Right Honorable
Edmund Burke, one of the said managers, _videlicet_, that he (meaning
Mr. Hastings) murdered that man (meaning Nundcomar) by the hands of Sir
Elijah Impey, ought not to have been spoken."

My Lords, this is the resolution of the House of Commons. Your
Lordships well know and remember my having used such or similar words,
and the end and purpose for which I used them. I owe a few words of
explanation to the Commons of Great Britain, who attend in a committee
of the whole House to be the observers and spectators of my conduct. I
owe it to your Lordships, I owe it to this great auditory, I owe it to
the present times and to posterity, to make some apology for a
proceeding which has drawn upon me the disavowal of the House which I
represent. Your Lordships will remember that this charge which I have
opened to your Lordships is primarily a charge founded upon the evidence
of the Rajah Nundcomar; and consequently I thought myself obliged, I
thought it a part of my duty, to support the credit of that person, who
is the principal evidence to support the direct charge that is brou