and bring destruction upon their own heads, and on those of
all their posterity.

On the other hand, I have too much confidence in the learning with which
you will be advised, and the liberality and nobleness of the sentiments
with which you are born, to suspect that you would, by any abuse of the
forms, and a technical course of proceeding, deny justice to so great a
part of the world that claims it at your hands. Your Lordships always
had an ample power, and almost unlimited jurisdiction; you have now a
boundless object. It is not from this district or from that parish, not
from this city or the other province, that relief is now applied for:
exiled and undone princes, extensive tribes, suffering nations, infinite
descriptions of men, different in language, in manners, and in rites,
men separated by every barrier of Nature from you, by the Providence of
God are blended in one common cause, and are now become suppliants at
your bar. For the honor of this nation, in vindication of this
mysterious Providence, let it be known that no rule formed upon
municipal maxims (if any such rule exists) will prevent the course of
that imperial justice which you owe to the people that call to you from
all parts of a great disjointed world. For, situated as this kingdom is,
an object, thank God, of envy to the rest of the nations, its conduct in
that high and elevated situation will undoubtedly be scrutinized with a
severity as great as its power is invidious.

It is well known that enormous wealth has poured into this country from
India through a thousand channels, public and concealed; and it is no
particular derogation from our honor to suppose a possibility of being
corrupted by that by which other empires have been corrupted, and
assemblies almost as respectable and venerable as your Lordships' have
been directly or indirectly vitiated. Forty millions of money, at least,
have within our memory been brought from India into England. In this
case the most sacred judicature ought to look to its reputation. Without
offence we may venture to suggest that the best way to secure reputation
is, not by a proud defiance of public opinion, but by guiding our
actions in such a manner as that public opinion may in the end be
securely defied, by having been previously respected and dreaded. No
direct false judgment is apprehended from the tribunals of this country;
but it is feared that partiality may lurk and nestle in the abuse of our
forms