THE denomination of pedant has long been improperly confined to men of literature, although in reality it is equally applicable to men of every defcription. A pedant is one whose ideas are fo totally engroffed by the object of his peculiar ftudies, that his common difcourfe is tinctured with its technical terms. When this does not arife from affectation, it is by no means reprehenfible, but ferves to fhew the parties have attended to the study of their occupa

tions.

Owing to this kind of pedantry, the profeffion or occupation of the majority of any company may be difcovered, every different calling having its peculiar allufions, jokes and wittisifms. When a gentleman being asked for a toaft gives the chief juftice, his honour the master of the rolls, or repeats the bon mots of Mr. juftice Bullhead, or ferjeant Splitcaufe, it requires no extraordinary fagacity to difcover that the propofer of fuch

toafts is a limb of the law.

On a like occafion, a perfon drinking his grace the archbishop of Canterbury, or his brother of York, the bishops of Durham or Winchester, pretty clearly points out a candidate for ecclefiaftical preferment.

The health of the chancellor, is a more equivocal index, as he has confiderable patronage to bestow on the profeffors of the law, as well as thofe of the gofpel; fo that the propofer of this toaft may be either a candidate for a law office, or a living; to determine which it will be neceffary to confult the context of his difcourfe.

When a fmart young fellow talks of the 18th, the 36th, or 64th, withQut difcriminating to what thofe numbers refer, now and then larding his difcourfe with an oath, and often emphatically mentioning the fervice, we may boldly pronounce him a military man.

If he cites fome late determinations refpecting proofs, drinks the mafter general, and talks of the Warren, it may be inferred that he is a military man, clothed in blue instead of fearlet.

Sailors are fo notorious for their profeffional allufions, that they proclaim themselves in every fentence. In walking the street, if one of these gentlemen wishes you to quicken your pace, he will defire you to carry more fail; if to wait for him, to lie to; and if he defires you to haften any bufinefs you are about, he will request you to bear a hand.

When a buckish young fellow talks of Jack Sprat, of Queen's; Tom Jackfon, of Maudlin; Joe Thomas, of Brazen Nofe; and Griff Jones, of Jefus ; he may be fafely fet down as an Oxonian or a Cantab.

The Bedford, the Garden, the town, the ton, and the houses, emphatically pronounced by a welldreffed man, mark the fpeaker to be a gentleman of gallantry and pleasure, and probably a wit and a critic.

The alley, confols, fcrip, omnium, tickets, and the refcounters, pronounc ed by a man in a cut wig, are indif putable marks of a ftock-jobber, or lottery-office keeper. One of these recovering from an illness, on being interrogated as to his health, will answer, he is cent. per cent. better: or fpeaking of the circumftances of a friend or acquaintance, will obferve, he is above or below par; taking up an empty bottle or bowl, he will pronounce it a blank; and describing a perfon in a dangerous fituation, will declare he would not underwrite him on any confideration. If pedantry be an improper display of one's profeffional knowledge, these are all furely as much entitled to the denomination of pedants, as the scholar who makes an oftentatious fhew of his learning.

PRO

My Lords,

My evidence is now brought to its clofe.

Sufficient has, I truft, been already done for every immediate purpose of neceffary juftification; and it is not, my lords, from any apprehenfion that I entertain left any defects of this kind fhould exift, or from a vain opinion that they could be fupplied by me, that I prefent myself once more to your lordships' attention. No, my lords, I leave the proof which I have offered to its juft and effectual operation, without any degree of doubtful anxiety for the iffue. But, my lords, I rife for a purpose which no external teftimony can adequately fupply, to convey to your lordships' minds a fatisfaction which honourable minds may poffibly expect, and which the folemn affeverations of a man impreffed with a due fenfe of the facred obligations of religion and honour can alone adequately convey.

'I know that the actual motives of human conduct are often dark and myfterious, and fometimes infcrutable. As far as the fubject is capable of further afcertainment, and the truth can be sealed by a ftill more folemn atteftation, it is a duty which innocence owes to itself to afford it. In the prefence, therefore, of that Beiug from whom no fecrets are hid, I do, upon a full review and fcrutiny of my paft life, unequivocally and confcientioufly, declare, that, in the adminiftration of that truft of government which was during fo many years confided to me, I did, in no inftance, intentionally facrifice the interest of my country to any private views of my own perfonal advantage; that according to my best fkill and judgment, I invariably promoted the effential interests of my employers, the happiness and profperity of the people committed to my charge, and the welfare and honour of my country, and at no time with more entire devotion of mind and purpose to these objects, than, during that period, in which my accufers have endeavoured to reprefent me as occupied and engroffed by the bafe purfuit of low, fordid, and interdi&ted emolument,

It may be expected of me to say something in addition to what you have heard from Mr. Woodman refpecting the actual ftate and extent of my fortune.

He has proved the total amount of my remittances from India during the period of my government; and that the balance of my fortune when last adjusted, shortly after my return to England in 1785, amounted to little more than 65,000l.

I protest, in the name of Almighty God, that I made no remittances to England during that period, which were not made to him and my other attornies joined in truft with him; that I had no other perfons in England, or Europe, in truft of my pecuniary concerns; and that his account of those remittances is accurately true, according to my best means of knowledge and belief upon the fubject ;_and that, including thofe remittances, I, at no time, poffeffed a fortune which exceeded, at its moft extended amount, the fum of 100,000l. and in this calculation I would be understood to comprehend every kind and description of property whatfoever, That, at the period of my return to England, my fortune did not exceed the balance already mentioned to have been then in the hands of my attornies, by more than the fum of 25,000l. amounting, on the largest calculation, to an aggregate fum of between 80 and 90,000l. and all the property which I poffefs ftands pledged at the prefent moment for the difcharge of fuch debts as I have contracted fince the commencement of this long depending trial.

Thefe are the enormous fruits of thir teen years of imputed rapacity and peculation, and of upward of thirty years of active and important fervice!

My lords, I know not how I can more fully and explicitly difavow every purpose of appropriating to my own benefit any of the various fums received and applied by me to the company's fervice in moments of extreme peril and exigency, than in the very terms in which I expreffed such dif avowal at your lordships' bar in the month of June 1791. I again repeat, that I folemnly, and with a pure confcience, affirin, that I never did harbour fuch a thought for a fingle inftant.

If, in addition to the proof upon your lordships' table of the juftice and neceffity

of the measures which are the fubjects of the two firth articles of the charge, it can be required of me, by an act of folemn and facred atteftation on my part, to vouch the truth of my defence in thofe particulars, and to vindicate my character from the unfounded charge of malice alleged to have been entertained by me against the immediate objects of thofe meafures, I once more call God to witness that no motive of perfonal enmity, no views of perfonal advantage to myfelf, or others, induced the adoption on my part of any of thote measures for which I am this day criminaily questioned; but that, in every inftance, I acted under the immediate and urgent fenfe of public duty, in obedience to the irrefiftible demands of public fafety, and to vindicate the just rights of the empire committed to my care, against thofe who, in a moment of its greateft peril, were engaged in hoftile confederacy to deftroy it.

I have no doubt, but that, upon a fair review of all the exifting circumstances, and the means of information then before me, no lavish or improper expenditure of public money will be found to have taken place in refpect to the contracts formed during my adininistration.

For the prudence and fuccefs of the regulations adopted and pursued in refpect to the controul and management of the public revenue, I trust I may be allowed to appeal to the flourishing condition which the company's provinces enjoyed during the period of my government, and which has been, from the continued operation of the fame caufe, in a courfe of progreffive improvement to the prefent hour.

I know that your lordfhips will, in your own enlightened and impartial wildom, justly eftimate the difficulties by which I was furrounded during a long and arduous period of public fervice; that you will allow for all the embarraffiments arifing from the long counteraction of my affociates in the government -for errors refulting from the honeft imperfection of my own judgment-from occafional deference to the counfels of others and from the varying fenfe of expediency which at different periods governed my own.

Your lordhips well know, that the imperious exigencies of public affairs often prefent to the fervants of the state no alter native but the painful choice of contending evils.

The tranfcendent and peremptory duty of my fituation was to devife and procure the neceffary means of public fafety. Feel

ing, as I did, the exigencies of the government as my own, and every preffure upon them refting with equal weight upon my mind; befieged, as at fometimes I was, by the hourly and clamorous importunities of every department of the military fervice-goaded at others with the cries of our then famished fettlements on the coaft of Coromandel-fhould I have deferved well, I do not fay of my country, but of the common cause of fuffering humanity, if I had punctilioufly food aloof from thofe means of fupply which gratitude or expectation enabled me to appropriate to the inftant relief of such distreffes !

you:

The whole tenor and conduct of my public life, is now, my lords, before it has undergone a fcrutiny of fuch extent and feverity as can find no parallel in former times, and I truft will, in many of the peculiar circumftances which have characterifed and diftinguished this trial, leave no example to the future.

My lords, I have now performed the moft folemn duty of my life, and with this I close my defence."

I

may now, I truft, affuredly confider myfelf as arrived at the threshold of my deliverance; at that period when no delay or procrastination can prevent the fpeedy and final termination of the proceedings now depending before your lordships.

After fuch recent and acceptable proof on the part of your lordfhips, of your earnest difpofition to accelerate the conclufion of this trial, it would betray an unwarranted and unbecoming distrust of your juftice, to offer any request to your lordships on this fubject, had I not other caufes of apprehenfion. At this momentous and awful crifis, ignorant of what may be in the minds of others, I am compelled to obviate every poffible, even though improbable danger.

In the fhort addrefs which I made to

your lordships on Friday laft, I ftated, that I should wave the obfervations of my counfel on the evidence of the article then before the court, and both the opening application of the evidence on the next ; and that I made thefe facrifices, well aware of their importance, for the express purpofe of affording ample time to my profecutors, during what remained of the probable term of this feffion, to make their reply..

If the managers for the commons had been equally deirous of accelerating the clofe of this trial, and I had a right to fuppofe that they were fo, from their re

peated

peated declarations to that effect, what I had faid might have been conftrued an offer of mutual accommodation : but, my lords, it was received with refentment, and anfwered with reproach, and worse infinuation.

What other conclufion can I put upon this conduct, but that which is conveyed to my ears from every quarter-that they mean to endeavour to prevail on your lordships to adjourn over this trial to its feventh year, that one more may be given them to prepare their replies. I do not know that this is their intention, but I may be allowed to fuppofe it; and though impreffed with the firmeft confidence of the juft and favourable difpofition of your lordships, I cannot but dread the event of a question in which my rights may be at iffue, with fuch opponents as the mana. gers of this profecution, fpeaking in the name of the houfe of commons, and of all the commons of Great Britain.

To meet fuch an attempt, if made, I humbly offer to your lordships the following arguments, moft anxiously recommending them to your confideration:

In an addrefs to a court of British peers, I cannot offend by pleading the rights which I poffefs as a British fubjectrights which are affured to me in common with all my fellow-fubjects of this realm, by the pledges of ancient charters, and the fanction of an oath, the most folemn that can be tendered or taken by men. My lords, I claim the performance of that facred promife, in all its implied obligations, that justice be adminiftered to me, and that it be administered now.

In the long period of another year, I may be numbered with thofe of my noble judges, whom I have, with forrow, feen drop off, year after year; and, in aggravation of the lofs which I have fuftained by their deaths, I may thus lofe the judgment of their furvivors by my own.

To the precepts and fanctions of the law, I join the rights which are derived from the practice of it.

In the other courts of this kingdom their criminal procefs is limited in its duration by exprefs and pofitive regulations.

On this high court, charged with other various important duties, the wifdom of our ancestors has impofed no restraint but the rule of honour and to that honour I make this my last appeal; humbly praying, that if in the courfe of this hard and long-extended trial I have conducted my felf with the most patient and respectful fubmiffion, and borne all the aggravating

circumftances of it with a tranquillity of mind, which nothing but a confcioufnefs of integrity, and an equal reliance on your ultimate juftice could have fupported, I may obtain from your lordships this only grace, that your lordships will order the trial, now past its legal procefs, to continue to its final conclufion during the prefent feffion.

A debate enfued on this petition; the refult of which was that their lordships would not bind themselves to the prayer of the petition, but refolved, upon motion, to proceed farther on the trial the next day.

In the house of commons, the fame day, a bill to enable magiftrates to fine overfeers and conftables for neglect of duty, and mafters for cruelty to their apprentices, was read a third time and paffed.

On Friday, May 17, the houfe took into confideration a motion of fir John Sinclair's, for an addrefs to his majefty, to appoint a board of agriculture.

The hon. baronet had opened this bufinefs on a preceding day, when he entered into a defcription of the present state of agriculture and farming in the kingdom'; and illuftrated the very great degree of improvement they were fufceptible of, and which muft tend more than any thing elfe to the real and permanent profperity of the nation. His idea was, that a board of commiffioners fhould be conftituted for the purpose of establishing a correfpondence on the fubject with foreign countries, and circulating information of the improvements made therein to all parts of the kingdom; that they fhould be invested with the privilege of franking, and affifted by fecretaries, clerks, agents, &c. the expence of which would be about 3000l. per annum. As to the members of the board itself, he was confident that many gentlemen would accept the fituation for the fole purpose of doing good, and would refuse all emolument. Such an inftitution must be attended (as the example of other countries evinced) with the moit beneficial effects; however, the meafure he propofed was only as an experimental one, and fhould at prefent be conftituted to last only for five years. He then moved an addrefs to his majefty, praying that he would be pleafed to order the appointment of a board on the above principals, &c. and the house would make good the expence incurred thereby.

The chief objection urged by those who were against the addrefs, was, that they

feared