[TO THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—Your severe criticism on
Bnrke's character• (Spectator, November• 7th) reminds me of a strange scene at the close of Warren Hastings's trial which was told me in the " fifties " by a Mr. Forbes, who was then about eighty years old. I am indebted to Sir• James Fitzjames Stephen for a comment on Forbes's narrative. Perhaps your• readers would feel an interest in that comment, which I give substantially as I published it thirteen years ago in the Westminster Gazette, and as I have since republished it elsewhere :— " Mr. John Forbes told me circumstantially and repeatedly an extraordinary story, namely, that he himself heard Warren Hastings, towards the close of his trial, in answer to some accusa- tion, call out, ' It is false !' whereupon Burke exclaimed aloud, What does that Jack-in-the-box say ? ' I expressed my scepticism. .Sir James, on the other hand, thought it probable that Mr. Forbes's statement was correct. He was of age at the end of Hastings's trial, and it seemed to Sir James unlikely that he could have invented so singular an occurrence. And Sir James added that; considering how brutal (I think that was his word) Burke was in his manner to Hastings, the incident did not seem to him antecedently incredible. Coming from so experienced a sifter of evidence, this opinion of Sir James cannot fail to carry weight."
Athenmum, Club, Pall Mall, S. W.
Previous page
