Burkes Speech on Conciliation with America | Page 5

came for him to take a stand. He voted for
the removal of some of the restrictions upon Irish trade. His
constituents, representing one of the most prosperous mercantile
districts, angered and disappointed at what they held to be a betrayal of
trust, refused to reelect him.
Lord North's ministry came to an end in 1782, immediately after the
battle of Yorktown, and Lord Rockingham was chosen prime minister.
Burke's past services warranted him in expecting an important place in
the cabinet, but he was ignored. Various things have been suggested as
reasons for this: he was poor; some of his relations and intimate
associates were objectionable; there were dark hints of speculations; he
was an Irishman. It is possible that any one of these facts, or all of them,
furnished a good excuse for not giving him an important position in the
new government. But it seems more probable that Burke's abilities
were not appreciated so justly as they have been since. The men with
whom he associated saw some of his greatness but not all of it. He was
assigned the office of Paymaster of Forces, a place of secondary
importance.
Lord Rockingham died in three months and the party went to pieces.
Burke refused to work under Shelburne, and, with Fox, joined Lord
North in forming the coalition which overthrew the Whig party. Burke
has been severely censured for the part he took in this. Perhaps there is
little excuse for his desertion, and it is certainly true that his course
raises the question of his sincere devotion to principles. His personal
dislike of Shelburne was so intense that he may have yielded to his
feelings. He felt hurt, too, we may be sure, at the disposition made of
him by his friends. In replying to a letter asking him for a place in the
new government, he writes that his correspondent has been
misinformed. "I make no part of the ministerial arrangement," he writes,
and adds, "Something in the official line may be thought fit for my
measure."

As a supporter of the coalition, Burke was one of the framers of the
India Bill. This was directed against the wholesale robbery and
corruption which the East India Company had been guilty of in its
government of the country. Both Fox and Burke defended the measure
with all the force and power which a thorough mastery of facts, a keen
sense of the injustice done an unhappy people, and a splendid rhetoric
can give. But it was doomed from the first. The people at large were
indifferent, many had profitable business relations with the company,
and the king used his personal influence against it. The bill failed to
pass, the coalition was dismissed, and the party, which had in Burke its
greatest representative, was utterly ruined.
The failure of the India Bill marked a victory for the king, and it also
prepared the way for one of the most famous transactions of Burke's
life. Macaulay has told how impressive and magnificent was the scene
at the trial of Warren Hastings. There were political reasons for the
impeachment, but the chief motive that stirred Burke was far removed
from this. He saw and understood the real state of affairs in India. The
mismanagement, the brutal methods, and the crimes committed there in
the name of the English government, moved him profoundly, and when
he rose before the magnificent audience at Westminster, for opening
the cause, he forced his hearers, by his own mighty passion, to see with
his own eyes, and to feel his own righteous anger. "When he came to
his two narratives," says Miss Burney, "when he related the particulars
of those dreadful murders, he interested, he engaged, he at last
overpowered me; I felt my cause lost. I could hardly keep my seat. My
eyes dreaded a single glance toward a man so accused as Mr. Hastings;
I wanted to sink on the floor, that they might be saved so painful a sight.
I had no hope he could clear himself; not another wish in his favor
remained." The trial lasted for six years and ended with the acquittal of
Hastings. The result was not a surprise, and least of all to Burke. The
fate of the India Bill had taught him how completely indifferent the
popular mind was to issues touching deep moral questions. Though a
seeming failure, he regarded the impeachment as the greatest work of
his life. It did much to arouse and stimulate the national sense of justice.
It made clear the cruel methods sometimes pursued under the guise of
civilization and progress. The moral victory is claimed for Burke, and
without a doubt the claim is valid.

The second of the great social and political problems, which employed
English statesmen in the