Mr. Sheridan in his celebrated speech on the " Begum
Charge," before the High Court of Parliament, in June,
1788, observed:
" State necessity is a tyrant which when it stalked abroad, assumed a manly front, manifesting its powers, and acting at least with an open, if not with a severe violence.
" Mr. Hastings in his political sagacity, took the converse of the doctrine that the experience of history had established; that opulence and wealth, as they attached a man to the country where they lay, made him cautious how he hazarded any enterprise that might draw the jealousy of government. Poverty on the other hand, made a man giddy and desperate; having no permanent state he was easily seduced into commotion. Mr. Hastings on the contrary, never failed to find a convincing proof of attachment in penury, and of rebellion in wealth."
The crowd is gone, the travellers at rest, The courteous host and all-approving guest, Again to that accustom'd couch must creep Where joy subsides, and sorrow sighs to sleep, And man o'er laboured with his being's strife, Shrinks to that sweet forgetfulness of life.
There lie love's feverish hope, and cunning's guile, Hate's working brain, and lull'd ambition's wile, O'er each vain eye oblivion's pinions wave, And quench'd existence crouches in a grave.
