Host. Nay, do not kill us. Balth. You have been tried, condemn'd, and only wait For execution. Which shall I begin with? Lamp. The lady, by all means, sir. Balth. Come, prepare. [To the hostess.] Host. Have pity on the weakness of my sex! Balth. Tell me, thou quaking mountain of +gross flesh, Tell me, and in a breath, how many poisons If you attempt it-[TO LAMPEDO, who is making off,] Host. None, as I hope mercy! "T is not, I own, of the first quality; Balth. Rise, if thou canst, aud hear me. Host. Your commands, sir? Balth. If, in five minutes, all things are prepar'd For my departure, you may yet survive. Host. It shall be done in less. Balth. Away, thou lump fish! [Exit hostess. Lamp. So! now comes my turn! 't is all over with me! There's dagger, rope, and ratsbane in his look! Balth. And now, thou sketch and outline of a man! Thou thing that hast no shadow in the sun! Thou eel in a consumption, eldest born Of Death on Famine! thou +anatomy Of a starv'd pilchard! Lamp. I do confess my leanness. I am spare, And, therefore, spare me. Balth. Why! wouldst thou not have made me A thoroughfare, for thy whole shop to pass through? Balth. Yes: he must die, too. Lamp. For my patients' sake Balth. I'll send thee to the major part of them. The window, sir, is open; come, prepare. Lamp. Pray, consider; I may hurt some one in the street. Balth. Why, then, I'll rattle thee to pieces in a dice-box, Or grind thee in a coffee-mill to powder, For thou must sup with Pluto: so, make ready; Balth. Thy wife! Lamp. My wife, sir. Balth. Hast thou dar'd think of matrimony, too? No flesh upon thy bones, and take a wife! Lamp. I took a wife, because I wanted flesh. I have a wife, and three angelic babes, Who, by those looks, are well nigh fatherless. Balth. Well, well! your wife and children shall plead for you. Come, come; the pills! where are the pills? produce them. Lamp. Here is the box. Balth. Were it +Pandora's, and each single pill Had ten diseases in it, you should take them. Lamp. What, all? Balth. Ay, all; and quickly too. Come, sir, begin-that's well! Another. Lamp. One's a dose. Balth. Proceed, sir. Lamp. What will become of me? Let me go home, and set my shop to rights, And, like immortal Cesar, die with decency. Balth. Away! and thank thy lucky star I have not Lamp. Would I were one! for they can feed on air. Balth. Home, sir, and be more honest. Lamp. If I am not, [Exit.] I'll be more wise, at least. [Exit.] CXLVII. IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS. WARREN HASTINGS was a Governor of the British possessions in India, and was impeached for maladministration. EDMUND BURKE, who, as attorney for the king, prosecuted Warren Hastings, was born in 1730. As an orator, politician, and author, he stood high among his cotemporaries. His treatise on The Sublime and Beautiful, is among his most popular works. He died in 1797. 1. THE place in which the impeachment of Warren Hastings was conducted, was worthy of such a trial. It was the great hall of William Rufus; the hall, which had resounded with acclamations, at the inauguration of thirty kings; the hall, which had witnessed the just sentence of Bacon, and the just absolution of Somers; the hall, where the eloquence of Stafford had for a moment awed and melted a victorious party inflamed with just resentment; the hall, where Charles had *confronted the High Court of Justice, with the placid courage which half redeemed his fame. 2. 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 heralds. The judges, in their +vestments of state, attended to give advice on points of law. The long galleries were crowded by such an audience as has rarely excited the fears or emulation of an orator. There, were gathered together, from all points of a great, free, enlightened, and prosperous realm, grace and female loveliness, wit, and learning, the representatives of every science and every art. 3. There, were seated around the queen, the fair-haired, young daughters of the house of Brunswick. There, the +embassadors of great kings and commonwealths gazed with admiration on a spectacle which no other country in the world could present. There, Siddons,* in the pride of her majestic beauty, looked with emotion on a scene surpassing all the imitations of the stage. There, Gibbon, the historian of the Roman Empire, thought of the days when Cicero pleaded the cause of Cicily against Verres; and when, before a senate which had some show of freedom, Tacitus thundered against *A celebrated actress. side by the oppressor of Africa; and there too, were seen, side, the greatest painter and the greatest scholar of the age; for the spectacle had allured Reynolds from his easel, and Parr, from his study. 4. The sergeants made *proclamation. Hastings advanced to the bar, and bent his knee. The culprit was indeed not unworthy 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 himself, that all had feared him, that most had loved him, and that hatred itself could deny him no title to glory, except virtue. A person, small and temaciated, yet deriving dignity from a carriage which, while it indicated +deference to the court, indicated, also, habitual self-possession and self-respect; a high and intellectual forehead; a brow, pensive, but not gloomy; a mouth of +inflexible decision; a face, pale and worn, but on which a great and well-balanced mind was legibly written: such formed the aspect with which the great pro-consul presented himself to his judges. 5. The charges, and the answers of Hastings, were first read. This ceremony occupied two whole days. On the third, Burke rose. Four sittings of the court were occupied by his opening speech, which was intended to be a general introduction to all the charges. With an exuberance of thought and a splendor of diction, which more than satisfied the highly-raised expectations of the audience, he described the character and institutions of the natives of India; recounted the circumstances in which the Asiatic Empire of Britain had originated; and set forth the Constitution of the Company and of the English Presidencies. 6. Having thus attempted to communicate to his hearers an idea of eastern society, as vivid as that which existed in his own mind, he proceeded to arraign the administration of Hastings, as systematically conducted in defiance of morality and public law. The energy and pathos of the great orator textorted expressions of unwonted admiration from all; and, for a moment, seemed to pierce even the resolute heart of the defendant. The ladies in the galleries, unaccustomed to such displays of eloquence, excited by the solemnity of the occa sion, and perhaps not unwilling to display their taste and sensibility, were in a state of incontrollable emotion. Handkerchiefs were pulled out; smelling-bottles were handed round; hysterical sobs and screams were heard, and some were even carried out in fits. 7. At length, the orator concluded. Raising his voice, till the old arches of Irish oak resounded-" Therefore," said he, "hath it in all confidence been ordered by the Commons of Great Britain, that I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of the Commons House of Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose ancient honor he has sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose rights he has trodden under foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert. Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every rank, I impeach the common enemy and oppressor of all." CXLVIII. THE MURDER OF PRINCE ARTHUR. FROM SHAKSPEARE. King John. Come hither, Hubert, O, my gentle Hubert! Hubert. I am much bounden to your majesty. K. John. Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet; Yet it shall come for me to do thee good. I had a thing to say,-but let it go: The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day, |