ppression: no, my Lords, we have brought before you the first man of
India, in rank, authority, and station. We have brought before you the
chief of the tribe, the head of the whole body of Eastern offenders, a
captain-general of iniquity, under whom all the fraud, all the
peculation, all the tyranny in India are embodied, disciplined, arrayed,
and paid. This is the person, my Lords, that we bring before you. We
have brought before you such a person, that, if you strike at him with
the firm and decided arm of justice, you will not have need of a great
many more examples. You strike at the whole corps, if you strike at the
head.

So far as to the crime: so far as to the criminal. Now, my Lords, I
shall say a few words relative to the evidence which we have brought to
support such a charge, and which ought to be equal in weight to the
charge itself. It is chiefly evidence of record, officially signed by
the criminal himself in many instances. We have brought before you his
own letters, authenticated by his own hand. On these we chiefly rely.
But we shall likewise bring before you living witnesses, competent to
speak to the points to which they are brought.

When you consider the late enormous power of the prisoner,--when you
consider his criminal, indefatigable assiduity in the destruction of all
recorded evidence,--when you consider the influence he has over almost
all living testimony,--when you consider the distance of the scene of
action,--I believe your Lordships, and I believe the world, will be
astonished that so much, so clear, so solid, and so conclusive evidence
of all kinds has been obtained against him. I have no doubt that in nine
instances in ten the evidence is such as would satisfy the narrow
precision supposed to prevail, and to a degree rightly to prevail, in
all subordinate power and delegated jurisdiction. But your Lordships
will maintain, what we assert and claim as the right of the subjects of
Great Britain, that you are not bound by any rules of evidence, or any
other rules whatever, except those of natural, immutable, and
substantial justice.

God forbid the Commons should desire that anything should be received as
proof from them which is not by nature adapted to prove the thing in
question! If they should make such a request, they would aim at
overturning the very principles of that justice to which they resort;
they would give the nation an evil example that would rebound back on
themselves,