remnant of his days, furely Mr. Haftings was that man. He had been thirteen years the Governor or Governor General of Bengal; the firft under the Company's appointments, the latter by five separate parliamentary appointments. He recovered that government, loaded with a heavy public debt contracted in peace, and its refources not exceeding three. millions fterling a year, a fum barely adequate to its annual expences. He quitted it, after a long, arduous, and fuccefsful war, with its empire confiderably extended, with the general voice of his countrymen and the natives in his favour, and its annual refources five millions and a half sterling, being two millions beyond the annual expenditure. Mark the contraft at home! When his government commenced in 1772, the empire of Great Britain extended over America-her debt was one hundred and thirty millions. In 1785 fhe had loft America, fome of her Weft India Iflands, Minorca, and her debt was two hundred and fixty millions. It was broadly stated by Mr. Dundas, and not denied, that Bengal had been in a progrefsive state of improvement under the British government. Facts of public notoriety proved the truth of this affertion; but what in dividual unfupported merit can refift the fury of Party? On the day Mr. Haftings arrived in London, Mr. Burke notified to the House of Commons, that early in the next feffions he would move an enquiry into the conduct of Mr. Haftings. During the recefs, Mr. Haftings was ftrenuously advised by men who well knew the nature of Parliament to pay no attention to this menace; or, if he was determined to notice it, to come into Parliament himfelf, and a feat was offered to him. He rejected the advice in both inftances, declaring that he neither wished to court nor to elude the enquiry, itill lefs was he difpofed to owe his fecurity to the forbearance of Mr. Burke; he therefore exprefsly defired Major Scott to afk Mr. Burke in his place at the next meeting of parliament, whether he meant to inftitute the enquiry or not? To this question Mr. Burke gave an evafive anfwer, but Mr. Fox a direct one. Subfequent to this converfation in the Houfe, a general meeting of the Party in oppofition affembled at Burlington Houle. The question was de bated, and great difference of opinion prevailed. The late Lord North, the prefent Marquis, of Hertford, the Duke of Norfolk, then Lord Surry, and many other gentlemen, were against any further proceedings; but Mr. Fox, with an unjustifiable generofity, for which he has been amply repaid, fupported Mr. Burke, and, conceiving his character to be at ftake, ftrenuously contended for the proceeding, and it was taken up as a party measure. Mr. Dempfter, the late Colonel Cathcart, Mr. Sloper, Mr. Nichols, and a few other members, feceded; but the party in general went with Mr. Fox." Two years were spent in the Houfe of Commons before the impeachment was voted, The trial lafted fix years in Westminster Hall, and a feventh in the chamber of Parliament ; fo that, if we reckon from 1785, when Mr. Burke gave his notice, to 1795, when the acquittal was pronounced, this celebrated trial might vie for duration with the fiege of Troy *. The evidence on this celebrated trial was fummed up by Lord Thurlow with an accuracy and precision that.reflect th: higheft honour on that diftinguished character; and his fpeeches contain the beft hiftory of Mr. Haftings's adminiftration that has hitherto been published +. This remarkable profecution cost the nation above one hundred thousand pounds, and the law expences of Mr. Haltings amounted to more than fixty. thoufand pounds; to which, if we add the incidental expences attending it, we may fairly fay, that the trial coft him one hundred thousand pounds alio. While it was depending, it had been repeatedly faid in the Houfe, that in the event of his acquittal he had an undoubted right to remuneration from parliament. A petition was accordingly drawn up by him, but the Minister would not advife his Majefty to agree to its being prefented. A General Court was afterwards called at the India House, and. a motion made by Mr. Ald. Lushington, prefaced by a very cloquent and energetic fpeech in favour of Mr. Haftings. After the fulleft acknowledgment of his fervices, it was propofed to pay the legal expences of his trial, and to grant him a penfion of five thousand pounds a year for the remainder of the charter. Both motions were carried by confiderable Quem neque Tydides, nec Lariffeur Achilles, VIRGIL. They are to be found in Debrett's Lords Debates for February, March, and April 1795. majorities; majorities; but doubts were started as to the right of the Company to difpofe of their own money without the confent of the Board of Commiffioners. The great lawyers held different opinions; but the Attorney and Solicitor General were decidedly against fuch a right being vefted in the Company. On this decifion a new motion was brought forward in concert with his Majesty's Minifters, who agreed (without any reference to the trial), in confideration of Mr. Hastings's public fervices, to grant him a penfion of four thousand pounds a year for twentyeight years and a half; of this penfion they immediately gave him forty-two thousand pounds, and lent him in addition fifty thousand pounds. The whole fum voted was one hundred and fourteen thousand pounds, of which they immediately paid him ninety-two thousand; the remainder he was to receive at the rate of five thousand pounds a year to the clofe of the charter; the other two thousand pounds were to be stopped to repay the loan of fifty thousand pounds, and his eftare was charged with a mortgage for the fum of fourteen thousand pounds, which would be due to the Company when the charter expired. We have given this account, because few have known what fum was really granted to Mr. Haftings. There have been various impeachments at different periods of our hiftory; but Mr. Haftings is the firft British fubject acquitted after a trial on an accufation preferred by the Commons. There are many infances of acquittal at the bar of the House of Lords; but in all others they have proceeded from a difference between the two Houfes, as in the cafes of the Whig Lords in the reign of Wil. liam the Third, and of Lord Oxford in the reign of George the Firit, and fometimes by the Commons not profecuting. But to the honour of the adminiftration of juftice in this reign, the trial of Mr. Haftings was brought to a legal determination without any interference on the part of the Crown, the King's Minifters, or the Houte of Commons, and by thofe Lords only who had generally attended the trial. Two other circumfiances highly honourable to Mr. Hattings ought allo to be mentioned. He was impeached in the name of the people of England, for acts of tyranny, injustice, and oppreflion, exercifed upon the natives of India. While the trial was yet pend. ing, the natives of India, of all ranks and fests, tranfmitted to the Eaft India Company, through Lord Cornwallis, their full difavowal of the charge, and expreffed their perfect fatisfaction with the conduct of Mr. Hastings, and their ftrong attachment to him. When the intelligence of his acquittal arrived in India, it was received with enthusiastic pleature. Addreffes of congratulation were transmitted to him by the British fubjects in Calcutta, by the officers of the army, and by all claffes amongst the natives: and the event was celebrated by public rejoicings in every part of Bengal. The charge preferred against him in behalf of the Eaft India Company was alfo difclaimed by that body. He was accufed of having brought upon them great lofs and damage, and of having wantonly waited their property. Men bred to business reforted to the evidence of figures; they found that Mr. Hattings had preferved the British Empire in India entire, had even improved it during a hazardous war, and had added two millions a year to their annual refources. They thought him entitled to applaufe rather than to cenfure, and they returned him their unanimous thanks for his long, faithful, and able fervices. Prejudice has now fubfided, and England and India proclaim with united rapture their obligations to Mr. Haftings. In private life, he is univerfally allowed to be a man of very general knowledge-an excellent Engineer (having practifed that art under the celebrated Mr. Robins), and an Architect. His minutes on military fubjects prove him well qualified to command an army; and that lie is an able Financier, and an admirable Lawyer, appears by his "Plans for the Better Administration of Justice," which have been published. Many fcholars and men of talents have tranflated the celebrated Ode of Horace which begins, "Otium divos rogat,' &c. The tranflation of Mr. Haltings is fuperior to them all. He wrote the following lines in Mr. Mickle's excellent' Version of the Lufiad of Camoëns, to be inferted at the end of the speech of Pacheco : Yet fhrink not, gallant Lufian, nor repine Fell Malice on his parting steps attends ; ΤΟ $IR, You TO THE EDITOR OF THE EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. * LITERARY SCRAPS. YOU will not, I trust, think me fond of argument, or that I wish to bring myfelf officioufly forward, if I take the liberty of differing from you in opinion relative to Griffith being the Author of the "Koran." I will not, indeed, contend that Sterne was; but I think there is internal evidence that Griffith was not. His novel of the "Triumvirate" is there very juftly condemned for its licentiqufnefs; and in a Ayle much more fevere than an Author would chufe to adopt in attacking himfelf. Waller in his "Divine Poefie," speaking of the Lord's Prayer, obferves, "His facred name with reverence profound "Should mention'd be, and trembling at the found." With this fentiment I cannot coincide. Reverence the most profound is what, I truft, all naturally and involuntarily adopt; but furely the words "Our Father" convey the idea of reverential love, rather than of fear and trembling. Dr. Johnson, in his Critiques on Pope's Epitaphs, first published in "The Vifitor," fays, "I think it may be obferved that the particle O! ufed at the beginning of a sentence, always offends." I do not think that many readers will agree with this in the following couplet : "O! bleft with temper, whofe unclouded ray "Can make to morrow chearful as to. day!" Either my tafte is depraved, or it has, in this inftance, peculiar force and elegance. Dr. Beattie has one paffage in his Differtation on the "Theory of Language" almoft verbatim from Adam Smith's celebrated Chapter on the Divifion of Labour. It ought to have been marked as a quotation: tis poffible, however, that he himself was not aware of it. The Doctor is, I believe, defervedly esteemed for being candid and liberal in his fentiments; I was there fore fomewhat furprized that he should accufe thofe clergymen of nicety, &c. who very properly, in the Lord's Prayer, fay "Our Father, who art," &c. Monro, in one of the numbers of the impracticable, fays, "A man may as "Olla Podrida," fpeaking of fomething. is a remark that will do him no credit well hunt for beauties in Offian." This with impartial difpaffionate readers. For my own part I can find in Offian (no matter whether a real or forged pro. duction) paffages that will pleafe me as much as any in the Olla Podrida. I own myfelf an admirer of Mr. M's; but to cenfure others for a difference of opinion in mere matters of tafte is beneath a writer of merit. Smart, in his "Tranflation of Horace," has rendered rore marino, with fa dew; which makes nonfenfe of the paffage. It requires no great proficiency in the Latin language to know that ros marinus means rosemary. I am, Sir, &c. &c. W. P. TAYLOR. Halifax, Feb. 7, 1799. · When we mentioned the name of Mr. Griffith as the fuppofed Author of the "Koran," intended to be palmed on the public as a work of Sterne's, we did not fpeak on a flight authority. We believe it would be fufficient to fatisfy our Correfpondent himself, were we to adduce it. We were not ignorant of the flur caft on "The Triumvirate," a work we have reason to think the Author viewed with no complacency in the latter part of his life. It furely is not a new circumstance for an Author to be diffatisfied with an early performance. He might alfo have hoped that the public would draw the fame inference as our Correfpondent has done, and by that means efcape fufpicion of being the Author of the "Koran," which he wished to have believed the work of a fuperior and more popular writer. The concluding paragraph of our Correspondent's letter we have omitted, as his obfervation has been already foreftalled by Dr. Grey, in his Edition of Hudibras.-EDITOR. VOL. XXXV. FEB. 1799. THE THE LONDON REVIEW, AND LITERARY JOURNAL, FOR FEBRUARY 1799. QUID SIT PULCHRUM, QUID TURPE, QUID UTILE, QUID NON. A Journal of the most remarkable Occurrences that took place in Rome upon the Subverfion of the Ecclefiaftical Government in 1798. By Richard Duppa. 8vo. Robinfons. 1799. HE Author of this Journal is an during the extracrdinary events which are here narrated. He is alfo one who appears not to have viewed the proceedings of the French through a partial prejudiced medium. "It was, fays he, when the French were at the gates of Rome that I myself looked with anxious though clouded expectation for the realizing thofe theories of republican virtue that had fometimes ferved to amufe the fpeculations of an hour. The opening fcene was highly favourable to the molt flattering hope both of liberality and justice. In one and the fame day all right of conqueft was relinquished, and Rome declared a free and independent government: to exercile whofe functions, the honefteft, the ableft, and the best men that could be chofen out of that party were felected. This was even confolatory to the enemies of the revolution; but it was of fhort duration, for the men that were made oftenfible to the Roman people as provifionary governors, foon found that their power was hardly even the fhadow of authority. They were made use of only to fhew where, and in what confifled the little remaining wealth of the ftate, and politely compelled to give their affent that that little might be taken from it: they had alfo the privilege of iffing edicts; which privilege they were compelled to exercife, for oppreffing the people beyond all example of even the greatest defpotifmn of ancient times, and were thus made obnoxious, without even deriving any profit from the plunder that was executed under their names. Hence, as might easily be ex their own perfonal characters, fcon withdrew themfelves, or by making oppofition to fuch measures were compelled by others to retire. "The vacancies produced were now filled up by men of unfcrutinized characters, who in this opportunity boldly ftepped forward to recommend themfelves, through the intereft of their money, or other collateral means, and were nominated, as thofe means feemed to bear a proportion to their pretenfions. This mode of electing men into office had many advantages. The indi viduals who had the power of dilpoling of fuch places became enriched; their orders were not likely to be disobeyed or reluctantly complied with; and as thefe agents were to have their per centage, fo they would be likely to take good care that their mafters fhould have no reafon to complain of any deficiency in the military cheft. "When this was done, and Generals and Commiffaries had glutted themfelves with wealth, quarrelled about a juft divilion of the poil, mutinied, and dif peried, other unpaid, unclothed, unprovifioned armies from the North, with new appointments, fucceeded; and when at length, even by these constitutional means, nothing more was to be obtained, and artifice had exhaufted every refource, the mask was put under the feet that had been long held in the hand: liberty was declared dangerous to the fafety of the republic, the conftituted authority in. capable of managing the affairs of the 3 fate, fate, and military law the only rational expedient to fupply their place. Thus at once the mockery of confular dignity was put an end to, the fenators fent home to take care of their families, and the tribunes to blend with the people whom they before reprefented. This new and preferable fyllem began its operations with nothing lefs important for the general welfare, than feizing the whole annual revenue of every estate productive of more than ten thousand crowns; two thirds of every eftate that produced more than five, but lefs than ten; and one half of every inferior annual income. "This, in a few words, has been the progreffive conduct of the GREAT NATION towards an injured and oppreffed people, whofe happiness and dearest in terefts were its first care, and to whom freedom and liberty had been restored, that they might know to appreciate the virtue of their benefactors, and the inestimable bleflings of independence." The prefent Volume begins at the pe. riod when General Duphot was killed; but this event, though it might accelerate, did not produce the Revolution. That was determined on before, and would have taken place, had no fuch circumftance happened. Mr. Duppa fays, p. 53, “A Prior of a Dominican convent, with whom I was acquainted, converfing familiarly one day with a French officer on the circumftances of the Revolution, the latter had the liberality and franknefs to say, We were di treffed for money, and we were obliged to come; as for the death of Duphot, it would have been of no confequence, if there had not been other objects of greater importance." The feeble counfels of the Pope contributed much to his downfall, and the reward he met with ought to fatisfy other Powers of the measure than is likely to be dealt to them, fhould they fubmit to an enemy arrogant, rapacious, cruel, infidious, and fetting every focial obligation at defiance. On this occafion we cannot but remark how closely Mr. Burke's prophetic picture at an early ftage of the Revolution, which gave fo much offence to the vifionaire reformers of the day, has been verified, when he characterized the French, not then become a Republic, as " an IRRATIONAL, UNPRINCIPLED, PROSCRIBING, CONFISCATING, PLUNDERING, FEROCIOUS, BLOODY, AND TYRANNICAL DEMOCRACY!" Some of the circumstances refpecting the behaviour of the French to the Pope have already been detailed in our Magazine for July laft, p. 5; we shall now notice the remaining contents of Mr. Duppa's performance. The entry of the French, the planting the tree of liberty, the facking of the Vatican and other palaces, the funeral fête in honour of Duphot, the mutiny among the French officers, the infurrection of the Trafteverini, the abolition of the Monafteries and the impriforments of the Cardinals in the Convertiti, the Federation, the pro ceedings of the Jacobin Club, the alteration of the dreis and manners of the Romans after the change in their govern ment, the deftruction of public credit, the confifcations and contributions, the dignity of the Confuls with remarks on their conduct. All thefe are circumftantially related, and generally from the Author's own obfervation. The proceedings of the Jacobin Club are worthy of particular attention: "In order that the fpirit of equality might be more extenfively diffufed, a confti, tutional democratic club was inflituted, and held in the hall of the Duke d'Altem's palace. Here the new born fons of freedom harangued each other on the bleffings of emancipation, talked loudly and boldly against all conftituted authority, and even their own Confuls had hardly been invested with their robes, when they became the fubjects of cenfure and abufo. Our nation was held as particularly odious, and a conftant theme of impre cation; and this farce was fo ridiculously carried on, that a twopenny fubfcription was fet on foot to reduce what they were pleafed to call the proud Carthage of the North. "If this foolish fociety had had no other object in view than fpouting for each other's amusement, and bowing and kiffing a buft of Brutus that was placed before the roftrum, a ceremony which was conftantly practifed before the evening's debate, it would have been of little confequence to any but the idle people, who preferred this mode of fpending their time; but it had other objects of a very different tendency, more baneful, and more deftructive to the peace and morals of fociety-that of intoxicating young minds with heterogeneous principles they could not understand, to fuperfede the firft laws of nature in all the focial duties; for there were not wanting men who knew how to direct the folly and enthusiasm of thofe who did not know how to direct themselves. Here they were taught that their duty to the re public |