s in their
narratives leading to the charges they intend to bring. They are not
always called to the strictest account for such prefatory matter,
because the court, when it comes to judge, sifts and distinguishes it
from the points to be strictly proved, and on whose merits the cause
relies. But I wish your Lordships to know, that, with the high opinion I
have of your gravity, (and it is impossible for a man to conceive a
higher,) and sensible of the weight of those I represent at this place,
namely, the Commons of Great Britain, I should be sorry that any one
substantial fact, even in this explanatory opening, or even the color of
the fact, should be alleged, which, when called upon, I should not be
ready to make good to you by proof,--I mean, by proof adapted to its
nature: public opinion, by evidence of public opinion; by record, that
to which record is applicable; by oral testimony, things to which oral
testimony alone can be produced; and, last of all, that which is matter
of historic proof, by historic evidence. This I hope to do with the
usual allowance to errors and mistakes, which is the claim of human
infirmity.

Then, my Lords, two distinct people inhabit India. Two sorts of people
inhabit the same country, as totally distinct from each other, in
characters, lives, opinions, prejudices, and manners, as the inhabitants
of countries most remote from each other. For both of these descriptions
Mr. Hastings was bound to provide equally, agreeable to the terms of
the charter which the Company received from the lawful governing power
of that country: a charter received at its own solicitation; a charter
not forced upon us by a superior power, but given at the immediate
solicitation of the principal servants belonging to the Company; a
charter solemnly accepted by the Company, and by them, I am very sorry
to say, little regarded,--or, at least, little regarded by their
principal servants.

My Lords, the first description of people who are subjected virtually to
the British empire through those mediums which I have described to you
are the original inhabitants of Hindostan, who have in all time, and
beyond all the eras which we use, (I mean always the two grand eras
excepted,) been the aboriginal inhabitants and proprietors of that
country,--with manners, religion, customs, and usages appropriated to
themselves, and little resembling those of the rest of mankind. This
description of men is commonly called Gentoos. T