cases is the
greatest security, given a lawful gratification to the natural passions
of men. Matrimony is to be used, as a true remedy against a vicious
course of profligate manners; fair and lawful emoluments, and the just
profits of office, are opposed to the unlawful means which might be made
use of to supply them. For, in truth, I am ready to agree, that for any
man to expect a series of sacrifices without a return in blessings, to
expect labor without a prospect of reward, and fatigue without any means
of securing rest, is an unreasonable demand in any human creature from
another. Those who trust that they shall find in men uncommon and heroic
virtues are themselves endeavoring to have nothing paid them but the
common returns of the worst parts of human infirmity. And therefore I
shall show your Lordships that the Company did provide large, ample,
abundant means for supporting the Governor-General,--that Lord Clive, in
the year 1765, and the Council with him, of which Mr. Sumner, I am glad
and proud to say, was one, did fix such an allowance as they thought a
sufficient security to the Governor-General against the temptations
attendant upon his situation; and therefore, after they had fixed this
sum, they say, "that, although by this means the Governor will not be
able to amass a million or half a million in the space of two or three
years, yet he will acquire a very handsome independency, and be in that
very situation which a man of honor and true zeal for the service would
wish to possess. Thus situated, he may defy all opposition in Council;
he will have nothing to ask, nothing to propose, but what he wishes for
the advantage of his employers; he may defy the law, because there can
be no foundation for a bill of discovery; and he may defy the obloquy of
the world, because there can be nothing censurable in his conduct. In
short, if stability can be insured to such a government as this, where
riches have been acquired in abundance in a small space of time, by all
ways and means, and by men with or without capacities, it must be
effected by a Governor thus restricted,"--that is, a Governor restricted
from every emolument but that of his salary. I must remark, that this
salary and these emoluments were not settled upon the vague speculations
of men taking the measure of their necessities for India from the
manners of England; but it was fixed by the Council themselves,--fixed
in India,--fixed by those who knew and we