During these eight years his splendid eloquence was the admiration and pride of the English people, and gave to the arraignment of Hastings an extrinsic interest far beyond the real importance.

It bore no comparison in any of its essential aspects with a change of Rulership in a Republic of forty millions of people.

Scarcely an incident of Hastings' life in India would be known to the popular reader, except for the association of his name with the most celebrated period of Mr.Burke's majestic career.

Baron Plassy, a far greater man in the same field of achievement, is, compared with Hastings, little known--the title not being remembered even by the mass of his countrymen to-day as part of the reward to Robert Clive for founding the British Empire in India.
But the importance of the President's Impeachment does not depend upon the fame of his accusers or upon the length of his trial.

The case in itself possesses intrinsic and enduring interest.