I am sure,
if I were only considering what passed from him to the Managers in this
box, and knowing what allowance is due to a wounded conscience, brought
before an awful tribunal, and smarting under the impressions of its own
guilt, I would pass them over. But, my Lords, we have the honor of the
Commons, we have the honor of this court to sustain. [Your Lordships,
the other day, for an offence committed against a constable, who was
keeping the way under your orders, did, very justly, and to the great
satisfaction of the public, commit the party to Bridewell, for a much
slighter insult against the honor and dignify of your court.] And I
leave it, therefore, for the present, till your Lordships can seriously
consider what the mode of proceeding in this matter ought to be.--I now
proceed.

* * * * *

We have read to your Lordships the orders of the Court of Directors: I
again say we consider them as orders: your Lordships are as good judges
of the propriety of the term as we are. You have heard them read; you
have also heard that the Council at Calcutta considered them as orders,
for resolutions were moved upon them; and Mr. Stables, in evidence
before you here, who was one of the Council, so considered them: and yet
this man has the frantic audacity in this place to assert that they were
not orders, and to declare that he cannot stand the repetition of such
abominable falsehoods as are perpetually urged against him. We cannot
conceive that your Lordships will suffer this; and if you do, I promise
you the Commons will not suffer the justice of the country to be trifled
with and insulted in this manner: because, if such conduct be suffered
by your Lordships, they must say that very disagreeable consequences
will ensue, and very disagreeable inferences will be drawn by the public
concerning it. You will forgive, and we know how to forgive, the ravings
of people smarting under a conscious sense of their guilt. But when we
are reading documents given in evidence, and are commenting upon them,
the use of this kind of language really deserves your Lordships'
consideration. As for us, we regard it no more than we should other
noise and brawlings of criminals who in irons may be led through the
streets, raving at the magistrate that has committed them. We consider
him as a poor, miserable man, railing at his accusers: it is natural he
should fall into all these frantic ravings, but it is not fit or