as not
bettered by bills at long periods; he does not pretend that he raised
any money upon them; nor is it conceivable that a banker at Benares
would be more willing to honor the drafts of so miserable, undone, and
dependent a person as the Nabob of Oude than those of the
Governor-General of Bengal, which might be paid either on the receipt of
the Benares revenue, or at the seat of his power, and of the Company's
exchequer. Besides, it is not explicable, upon any grounds that can be
avowed, why the Nabob, who could afford to give these bills as _a
present_ to Mr. Hastings, could not have equally given them in discharge
of the debt which he owed to the Company. It is, indeed, very much to be
feared that the people of India find it sometimes turn more to their
account to give presents to the English in authority than to pay their
debts to the public; and this is a matter of a very serious
consideration.

No small merit is made by Mr. Hastings, and that, too, in a high and
upbraiding style, of his having come to a voluntary discovery of this
and other unlawful practices of the same kind. "That honorable court,"
says Mr. Hastings, addressing himself to his masters, in his letter of
December, 1782, "ought to know whether I possess the integrity and honor
which are the first requisites of such a station. If I wanted these,
they have afforded me too powerful incentives to suppress the
information which I now convey to them through you, and to appropriate
to my own use the sums which I have already passed to their credit, by
their _unworthy_, and pardon me if I add _dangerous reflections_, which
they have passed upon me for the first communication of this kind"; and
he immediately adds, what is singular and striking, and savors of a
recriminatory insinuation, "_and your own experience_ will suggest to
you that there are persons who would profit by such a warning."[43] To
what Directors in particular this imputation of experience is applied,
and what other persons they are in whom _experience_ has shown a
disposition to profit of such a warning, is a matter highly proper to be
inquired into. What Mr. Hastings says further on this subject is no less
worthy of attention:--"_that he could have concealed these transactions,
if he had a wrong motive, from theirs and the public eye forever_."[44]
It is undoubtedly true, that, whether the observation be applicable to
the particular case or not, practices of this corrupt nature are
ex