, or
receive, or agree to accept, take, or receive, any gift, reward,
gratuity, allowance, donation, or compensation, in money, effects,
jewels, or otherwise howsoever, from any of the Indian princes,
sovereigns, subahs, or nabobs, or any of their ministers, servants,
or agents, exceeding the value of four thousand rupees, for any
service or services performed or to be performed by them in India,
or upon any other account or pretence whatsoever."

By this covenant, my Lords, Mr. Hastings is forbidden to accept, upon
any pretence and under any name whatsoever, any sum above four thousand
rupees,--that is to say, any sum above four hundred pounds. Now the sum
that was here received is eighteen thousand pounds sterling, by way of a
present, under the name of an allowance for an entertainment, which is
the precise thing which his covenant was made to prevent. The covenant
suffered him to receive four hundred pounds: if he received more than
that money, he became a criminal, he had broken his covenant, and
forfeited the obligation he had made with his masters. Think with
yourselves, my Lords, what you will do, if you acquit the prisoner of
this charge. You will avow the validity, you will sanction the principle
of his defence: for, as the fact is avowed, there is an end of that.

Good God! my Lords, where are we? If they conceal their gifts and
presents, they are safe by their concealment; if they avow them, they
are still safer. They plead the customs of the country, or rather, the
customs which we have introduced into the country,--customs which have
been declared to have their foundation in a system of the most
abominable corruption, the most flagitious extortion, the most dreadful
oppression,--those very customs which their covenant is made to abolish.
Think where your Lordships are. You have before you a covenant declaring
that he should take under no name whatever (I do not know how words
could be selected in the English language more expressive) any sum more
than four hundred pounds. He says, "I have taken eighteen thousand
pounds." He makes his counsel declare, and he desires your Lordships to
confirm their declaration, that he is not only justifiable in so doing,
but that he ought to do so,--that he ought to break his covenant, and
act in direct contradiction to it. He does not even pretend to say that
this money was intended, either inwardly or outwardly, avowedly or
covertly, fo