"
Now, my Lords, observe who his models were, when he intended to punish
this man for an insult on himself. Did he consult the laws? Did he look
to the Institutes of Timour, or to those of Genghis Khan? Did he look to
the Hedaya, or to any of the approved authorities in this country? No,
my Lords, he exactly followed the advice which Longinus gives to a great
writer:--"Whenever you have a mind to elevate your mind, to raise it to
its highest pitch, and even to exceed yourself, upon any subject, think
how Homer would have described it, how Plato would have imagined it, and
how Demosthenes would have expressed it; and when you have so done, you
will then, no doubt, have a standard which will raise you up to the
dignity of anything that human genius can aspire to." Mr. Hastings was
calling upon himself, and raising his mind to the dignity of what
tyranny could do, what unrighteous exaction could perform. He
considered, he says, how much Sujah Dowlah would have exacted, and that
he thinks would not be too much for him to exact. He boldly avows,--"I
raised my mind to the elevation of Sujah Dowlah; I considered what
Cossim Ali Khan would have done, or Aliverdy Khan, who murdered and
robbed so many, I had all this line of great examples before me, and I
asked myself what fine they would have exacted upon such an occasion.
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