The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-02-07

SRVH tats nay ySuss lhsNfH
Sheridan delivered, in the House of Commons,
before the most crowded auditory that had ever
assembled vi thin those venerable walls, bis
celebrated speech in the case OF Warren Hast
ings. II occupied Eve hours and hall IN the
delivery, and is reported by Wraxaii, who was
a member of the House, to have produced an
effect, the like of which had never been wit
messed in that assembly. Ii received the ex-
traordinary compliment of having been praised
by Burke. Fox, and Pitt, who seemed to vie
with each other in their expressions of extraya-
CANT admiration. The first declared that il was
ssthe most surprising effort of argument, elo-
quence and wit united" which had ever been
made in any deliberative assembly. The Sc
cond said, that sail the eloquence of either an
cient or modern times, when put in compare
son with this superlalive effort, dwindles into
insignifcance, as vapors melt before the rays
ofthe sun" The last moved that "the House
adjourn until it can distinguish between the
blaze of eloquence and the light oftruth.''
Sheridan nerer gave a copy of this speech,
and the sketch which has come down to us, re-
ported by the younger Woodfall, seems by no
means to justify these extravagant encomiuns.
Yet when we recollect the extraordinary effect
which it produced upon the entire audience,
not less than upon the great men whom we
have just mentioned, we cannot doubt that it
was O marvellous effort. A single anecdote
may suffice to give better idea of its power
than can be derived from the fragment which
Woodfal gave to the world. The Rev. Mr..
Logan, gentleman Of profound learning and
great logical powers, had conceived violent
prejudice in behalf of Warren Hastings, and
against the prosecutors. He had gone so far
as to publish in favor of the Governor General
O pamphlet, in which he discussed the whole
subject with great ability, and handled the
House of Commons with such severity, that the
printer who published it, (Stockdale,) was
prosecuted for a libel on that august body
Fully convinced of Hastings innocence, and
surcharged with the most rancorous prejudices
against Sheridan, he obtained seat in the
gallery, and listened to his speech with the ut
most attention. At the end of the first hour,
he said, this is a very pretty speech, but there
is little force in it. At the end of the second,
the third, he said, this a most wonderful ora
ton. At the end of the fourth, MIR. Hastings,
said he, was very culpable; and when the ora
tor resumed his seat. he exclaimed, with great
vehemence, "of all monsters of iniquity, the
most enormous is Warren Hastingsi" When
We reflect that the most powerful speeches
rarely ever change the opinions of any one,
L.. Al r
cendent oraiion.
1t has become fashionable, of late years, to
regard Warren Hastings, the preserver to Eng
land of that immense colony which has contri-
buted so much to her wealth and power, as a
prosecuted man, and all his enormties have
been justified on The tyrant's plea of necessity.
Lord Erskine, in his speech in defence of the
printer Stockdale, first placed the argument
upon that ground, and he has been folio wed
with great elaboration by late writer's, espe-
cially by Macaulay. In answer to such de-
fence as this, ii is sufficient to ask, what crime
that was ever perpetrated cannot be justified
under the same plea ? When julius Caesar cut
off the righthand of BOG, 900 Gauls, he pleaded
necessity, for he was about to march upon his
country at the head of his legions and he was
fearful that they might rise upon his rear
When Napoleon shot 1900 Turks at Jaffa, he
did it because he had not men to spare to keep
guard over them, and wished to strike an ex-
ample. When Marshal Turenne converted
the Palatinate into bowling desert. laying
everything waste with fire and sword, he
pleaded the necessity Of rendering thae coun-
try useless to his enemies. Necessity was the
excuse that Selim gave for numbering the
Janizaries, and that Ibrahim gave for slaugh-
tering the MameIukes. There is not a canting
Englishman, who writes about the rapacity of
America, and her lust of conquest, that would
not shrink with horror from ackno wledgiug the
justice Of such plea, in the cases mentioned.
Yet, because the INSCRIPTIONS enormiies of
Warren Hastings saved the English empire in
Hindoostan, he is not only justified by his
countrymen, but actually applauded.
The treatmept extended by Hastings to the
two Begums NATIVE princesses) Of Dude,
formed crime the airocity of which is almost
without parallel, even in the history OF Rome
during the reigns of Nero, Caligula, and Do.
metian. He first plundered the son of one of
them, and then forced that son to plumber his |
mother. In the prosecution of this notable en- |
terprise, her castle was stormed; many of her |
servants massacred in cold blood, and others
tortured with cruelty which puts to shame all |
we ever read of pirates and highway robbers,
and all this for The purpose of making them
betray their mistress. Farther than this,
an English Governor General, let out for |
hire to o remorseless native tyrant, the blood |
Of the English soldiers, making them the in /
struments of his bloody and atrocious persecu-
tions. These were but small part of the un-
numbered atrocities committed by this great
criminal, whose administration in India is said TO
have cost the lives offs 900 900 of human beings.
It 10 ell justified under the plea of necessity |
The English East India Company had entrus-
ted the safety of India TO Hastings An inya-