Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-04-05


rem E8asfIngs-The Accused and His
COunseI-The Aecusers. Burke. Fox
and Sheridan - The Scene in the
House Of lords.
Macaulay, in the Edinburgh Reriar, pre-
sents brilliant description Of the opening
scenes At the great trial Of Hastings, in
l7SS. II will be read with interest at the
present time:
The place was worthy of such a trial. 1t
was the great hall Of William Rufus the
hall which had resounded with acelama-
lions at the Inauguration of thirty kings;
the hall which had witnessed the Just cen
tence CT Bacon, and the just absolution Of
Somers; the hall where the eloquence of
STAFFORD had for a moment awed and melt
eel a victorious party inilamed with Just
resentment; the hall where Charles had
confronted the High Court Of Justice with
the placid courage which has half re-
deemed his fame. Neither military nor
civil pomp was wanting. The avenues
were lined with grenadiers. The streets
were kept clear by cavalry. The peers,
robed in gold and ermine, were marshaled
by the heralds under Garter King-at-Arms.
The Judges, in their vestments of state, at
tended TO give advice on points of law.
Near a hundred aud seventy Lords,
three-fourths Of the Upper House, as
the Upper House then was, walked in
solemn order from their usual place
Of assembling TO the tribunal. The
junior baron present led the way
Lord Heathfeld, recently ennobled for his
memorable defiance Of Gibraltar against
the fleets and armies of France and Spain.
The long procession was closed by the
Duke Of Norfolk, Earl Marshal of the
realm, by the great dignitaries, and by the
brothers and sons Of the king. Last Of all
came the Prince Of Wales, conspicuous by
his fine person and noble bearing. The
gray old walls were hung with scarlet.
The long galleries were crowded by such
an audience az has rarely excited the fears
or the emulation Of an orator. There were
gathered together, from all parts of a great,
free, enlightened, and prosperous realm,
grace and female loveliness, wit and learn
ing, the representatives Of every science
and of every art. There were seated
around the Queen the fair-haired young
daughters of the house of Brunswick.
There the ambassadors Of great kings and
commonwealth gazed with admiration on
a spectacle which no other country in the
world could present. There Siddons, in
the prime of her majestic beauty, looked
with emotion on a scene surprising all the
limitations of the stage. There the histOri-
an of the Roman Empire thought of the
days when Cicero pleaded the cause of
Sicily against Nerres and when, before a
Senate which had still some show of free
dom, Tacitus Numbered against the oppres-
cor of Africa. There were seen, side by
side, the greatest painter and the greatest
scholar of the age. The spectacle had al
Jared Reynolds from that easel which has
preserved TO us the thoughtful foreheads of
so many writers and statesmen, and the
sweet smiles of so many noble matrons. Il
had induced Parr 10 suspend his labors i'm
that dark and profound mine from which
he had extracted a vast treasure of cru
dition-a treasure too often buried in the
earth, too often paraded with iniudicious
and inelegant ostentation; but still pre-
cious, massive, and splendid. There ap-
peared the voluptuous charms of her to
whom the heir Of the throne had in secret
plighted his faith. There, too, was she.
the beautiful mother Of beautiful race,
the Saint Cecilia, whose delicate features,
lighted up by love and music, art has
rescued from the common decay. There
we're the members Of that brilliant society
which quoted criticised, and exchanged
repartees under the rich peacock hangings
Of Mrs. Montague. And there the ladies,
whose lips, more persuasive than those of
Fox himself had carried the Westminster
election against palace and treasury, shone
round Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire.
The seaigants made proclamation. Ha-
stings advanced to the bar, and bent his
knee. The culprit was indeed not I'M
worthy of that great presence. He had
ruled an extensive and populous country,
had made laws and treaties, had sent forth
armies, had set up and pulled down princes.
And in his high place he had so borne him
self, that all had feared him, that most had
loved him, and that hatred itself could
deny him no title to glory, except virtue.
He looked like n great man, and not like
bad man. A person small and emacated,
yet deriving dignity from a carriage which,
while it indicated Difference TO the court,
indicated also habitual selfpossession and
selfrespect; high and intellectual fore
head brow pensive, but not gloomy; a
mouth of inhexible decision face pale
and worn, but serene, on which was written,
as legibly as under the great picture in the
Council Chamber at Calcutta, Mems aqua
IN GrdUis; such was the aspect with which
the great Pro-Consul presented himself TO
his Judges.
His counsel accompanied him, men all
Of whom were were afterwards raised by
their talents and learning TO the highest
points in their profession, bold and
strong-minded Law, afterwards Chief
Justice of the Kings Bench the more
humane and eloquent Dallas, afterwards
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; and
Pioneer, who, nearly twenty years later.
successfully conducted in the same High
Court the defense of Lord Melville, and
subsequently became Vice Chancellor and
Master of the Rolls.
But neither the culprit nor his advocates
attracted so much notice as the accusers.
In the midst Of the blaze of red drapery,
a space had been fitted up with green
benches and tables for the Commons. The
managers, with Burke at their head, APP
peared in full dress. The collectors Of
gossip did not fail to remark that even
Fox, generally so regardless of his appear
the comphmentof wearing bag and sword.
Pitt had refused TO be one of the conductors
of the impeachment and his commanding,
copioas, and sonorous eloquence was want
ing 10 that great muster OF various talents.
Age and blindness had untitled Lord North
for the duties Of a public prosecutor; and
his friends were left without the help Of his
excellent sense, his tact, and his nrbanity.
But, in spite of the absence of these two
distinguished members OF the Lower House,
the box in which the managers stood con-
tanned an array Of speakers such as perhaps
had not appeared together since the great
age of Athenian eloquence. There stood
Fox and Sheridan, the English Demos
themes aud the English Hyperides. There
was Burke, ignorant, indeed, or negligent
of the art of adapting his reasonings and
his style TO the capacity and taste Of his
hearers; but in aptitude Of comprehension
and richness Of Imagination superior
TO every orator, ancient or modern.
There, with eyes reverentially fixed
on Burke, appeared the finest gentle
men of the sge-his form developed
by every manly exercise his face beam
ing with intelligence and spiril-ihe inge-