with which he
charged them, they were proceeding in an orderly, regular manner; and if
on any occasion they seem to break out into warmth, it was in
consequence of that resistance which he made to them, in what your
Lordships, I believe, will agree with them in thinking was one of the
most important parts of their functions. If they had been intemperate in
their conduct, if they had been violent, passionate, prejudiced against
him, it afforded him only a better means of making his defence; because,
though in a rational and judicious mind the intemperate conduct of the
accuser certainly proves nothing with regard to the truth or falsehood
of his accusation, yet we do know that the minds of men are so
constituted that an improper mode of conducting a right thing does form
some degree of prejudice against it. Mr. Hastings, therefore, unable to
defend himself upon principle, has resorted as much as he possibly could
to prejudice. And at the same time that there is not one word of denial,
or the least attempt at a refutation of the charge, he has loaded the
records with all manner of minutes, proceedings, and letters relative to
everything but the fact itself. The great aim of his policy, both then,
before, and ever since, has been to divert the mind of the auditory, or
the persons to whom he addressed himself, from the nature of his cause,
to some collateral circumstance relative to it,--a policy to which he
has always had recourse; but that trick, the last resource of despairing
guilt, I trust will now completely fail him.

Mr. Hastings, however, began to be pretty sensible that this way of
proceeding had a very unpromising and untoward look; for which reason he
next declared that he reserved his defence for fear of a legal
prosecution, and that some time or other he would give a large and
liberal explanation to the Court of Directors, to whom he was answerable
for his conduct, of his refusing to suffer the inquiry to proceed, of
his omitting to give them satisfaction at the time, of his omitting to
take any one natural step that an innocent man would have taken upon
such an occasion. Under this promise he has remained from that time to
the time you see him at your bar, and he has neither denied, exculpated,
explained, or apologized for his conduct in any one single instance.

While he accuses the intemperance of his adversaries, he shows a degree
of temperance in himself which always attends guilt in despair: for
struggl