BOOK 1788. trial of Mr. The trial of Mr. Hastings commenced on the 15th of February-Westminster Hall being fitted Commence- up for the purpose with great magnificence. Mr. ment of the Burke was no less than four successive days in Hastings. making his preliminary speech, which was filled with vehement invective, with much rhetorical exaggeration, and with matter wholly extraneous to the subject of the impeachment. Men of plain sense, whose object was TRUTH, and who desired only a clear and simple summary of facts, sighed over these eccentricities and follies; and augured ill of the final success of the impeachment from so injudicious an outset. If approbation, however, was wanting, the place was amply supplied by admiration; and the speech was extolled by the parasitical flatterers of Mr. Burke, as a more than Ciceronian effort of eloquence. On the 22d of February the Benares charge was opened by Mr. Fox; and it was concluded on the 25th by Mr. Grey, member for the county of Northumberland, whose talents had, at a very early period of life, attracted in an eminent degree the attention of the house, of which he was destined to be one of the chief and most distinguished orna ments. On the 15th of April, the charge relative to the Begums of Oude was brought forward in a very able manner by Mr. Adam; and the evidence on this charge was summed up by Mr. Sheridan, in a XXIII. speech which lasted five days, and of which the BOOK more vigorous compression only was wanting to 1788. the perfection of eloquence. slave trade. The last business of importance which engaged Bill for regulating the the attention of parliament was a bill brought into African the house by sir William Dolben, member for the university of Oxford, a man of the highest integrity and respectability, to regulate the transportation of slaves from the coast of Africa to the West Indies. At the beginning of the year, a multitude of petitions had been presented from the different towns, cities, and counties of the kingdom, imploring in earnest and affecting terms the abolition of that superlatively nefarious and detestable traffic. A motion on the subject of these petitions was expected to be made by Mr. Wilberforce,member for Yorkshire; but in consequence of the long-protracted and unfortunate indisposition of that gentleman, Mr. Pitt on the 9th of May moved a resolution, importing that the house would early in the next session proceed to take into consideration the state of the slave-trade. The bill of sir William Dolben, which was intended merely to establish a certain reasonable propor tion between the number of slaves and the tonnage of the ships, was violently and obstinately opposed by petitions from the merchants of London and Liverpool concerned in the African trade. Counsel being therefore engaged, and witnesses 1788. BOOK examined, it appeared in evidence at the bar of the XXIII. house, that five feet six inches in length, and sixteen inches in breadth, was the average space allotted to each slave. The lower deck of the vessel was entirely covered with bodies. The space between the floor of that deck and the roof above, in height about five feet eight inches, was divided by a platform, also covered with human bodies. The slaves were chained, two and two, by their hands and feet, and by means of ring-bolts fastened to the deck. In that sultry climate, their allowance was a pint of water each per diem; and they were usually fed twice a day with yams and horse beans. After meals they were compelled by the whip to jump in their irons, which by the slave dealers was called dancing. They had not, as was emphatically stated, when stowed together, so much room as a man in his coffin, either in length or breadth. They drew their breath with laborious and anxious efforts, and many died of mere suffocation. The customary mortality of the voyage exceeded seventeen times the usual estimate of human life. A slave ship, when full fraught with this cargo of wretchedness and abomination, exhibited at once the extremes of hu man depravity and human misery. Mr. Pitt, who, on various occasions, has dropped the statesman to assume the nobler character of the philanthropist, declared with indignant XXII. 1788. eloquence, "that if, as had been asserted by the BOOK members for Liverpool, the trade could not be carried on in any other manner, he would retract what he had said on a former day, and, waving every farther discussion, give his instant vote for the annihilation of a traffic thus shocking to humanity. He trusted that the house, being now in possession of such evidence as was never before exhibited, would endeavour to extricate themselves from the guilt and remorse which every man ought to feel for having so long overlooked such cruelty and oppression." The bill was carried up June 18th to the house of lords, where it was fated to encounter the determined opposition of lord Thurlow. His lordship said, that the bill was full of inconsistency and nonsense. The French had lately offered premiums to encourage the African trade, and the natural presumption was, that we ought to do the same. This measure appeared to him very like a breach of parliamentary faith. As to himself, he scrupled not to say, "that if the fit of philanthropy which had slept so many years had been suffered to sleep one summer longer, it would have appeared to him more wise than to take up the subject in this disjointed manner." The duke of Chandos ventured to predict a general insurrection of the negroes in the West Indies, in consequence of the agitation of the present question. And lord Sydney, who had BOOK once ranked among the friends of liberty, expressed XXIII. in warm terms his admiration of the system of the 1788. Alarming iliness of the king slave laws established in Jamaica, and saw no room for any improvement. The bill was defended by the duke of Richmond and marquis Townshend in a manner which did honor to their understanding and feelings and it finally passed by a considerable majority. The king put an end to the session July 11, by a speech from the throne, in which he complimented the two houses on their attention and liberality. His faithful subjects had every reason (as he affirmed) to expect the continuance of the blessings of peace; and the engagements which he had recently formed with the king of Prussia and the States General of the United Provinces, would, he trusted, promote the security and welfare of his own dominions, and contribute to the general tranquility of Europe." Soon after the recess of parliament, the king, who had been for some time rather indisposed, was advised by his physicians to try the mineral waters of Cheltenham, which he was believed to drink in too profuse a quantity. His health appeared, nevertheless, during his residence there, greatly established; and he amused himself and gratified his people by various excursions in the vicinity of that place, displaying on these occasions inuch condescension and affability, and being every |