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204 endangered the ship of State. Many of Pitt's followers flocked into the same lobby with those of Fox and Burke, and the hostile vote was carried by a majority of thirty-nine.

In February, 1787, the charge concerning the Oudh Begams was opened by Sheridan in a long speech, whose dazzling eloquence played over a rich field of falsehoods, fallacies, exaggerations, and half-truths. Pitt joined in the attack upon Hastings, whose guilt was affirmed by a majority of nearly three to one. The work of accusation went on so triumphantly, that the Commons on the 10th May decided to impeach Warren Hastings for high crimes and misdemeanours at the bar of the House of Lords. Thither on the 21st the great Governor was brought by the Sergeant-at-Arms to hear the articles of his impeachment read out by Burke. A committee of twenty commoners, headed by Burke himself, was appointed to conduct the trial of a man who deserved the highest honours that his country could have bestowed. The real author of the impeachment, Philip Francis, was very properly excluded, in spite of Burke's pleadings, from a place upon the committee. But he was allowed to attend their meetings, and to aid them liberally with the fruits of his misapplied talents and inventive spite.

The remainder of that year Hastings spent in preparations for his defence. Three eminent barristers, Law, Dallas, and Plumer, worked zealously on his behalf in concert with the faithful Major John Scott,