those years were spent in hearing the case for the defence, which Law, the future Lord Ellenborough, opened with a long, masterly, and temperate speech, that made his name, says Brougham, both as a lawyer and a speaker, and soon raised him to 'the highest walks of the bar.' At last, in 1794, the Managers replied upon the several charges; Lord Cornwallis, fresh from his successful rule in India, gave timely evidence in Hastings' favour; and Burke finally summed up the case against him in a violent speech nine days long, which exhausted the whole vocabulary of licensed vituperation. It was in fact one prolonged yell of foul-mouthed fury, of which Law solemnly affirmed in the House of Commons, that 'the English language did not afford expressions more gross, violent, abusive, and indecent than those which the Manager had used.' The best passages in that speech, he added, were but 'sublime and beautiful nonsense; at other times his expressions were so vulgar and illiberal, that the lowest blackguard in a bear-garden would have been ashamed to utter them[1].' Burke's great mind was clearly losing its balance with the utter loss of what temper he had ever possessed.
In February, 1795, the Lords proceeded to discuss in committee the bearing of the evidence on each charge. Thurlow's old place on the Woolsack was then filled by Lord Loughborough; but the late Chancellor still took the lead by right of long experience and sound judgment in the closing business of
- ↑ Debrett.
