n a worse situation, and that put
an honest defendant in a better; for there was every means of collation,
every means of comparison, every means of cross-examining, every means
of control. There was every way of sifting evidence, in which evidence
could be sifted. Eleven witnesses to the transaction are referred to;
all the particulars of the payment, every circumstance that could give
the person accused the advantage of showing the falsehood of the
accusation, were specified. General accusations may be treated as
calumnies; but particular accusations, like these, afford the defendant,
if innocent, every possible means for making his defence: therefore the
very making no defence at all would prove, beyond all doubt, a
consciousness of guilt.

The next thing for your Lordships' consideration is the conduct of Mr.
Hastings upon this occasion. You would imagine that he would have
treated the accusation with a cold and manly disdain; that he would
have challenged and defied inquiry, and desired to see his accuser face
to face. This is what any man would do in such a situation. I can
conceive very well that a man composed, firm, and collected in himself,
conscious of not only integrity, but known integrity, conscious of a
whole life beyond the reach of suspicion,--that a man placed in such a
situation might oppose general character to general accusation, and
stand collected in himself, poised on his own base, and defying all the
calumnies in the world. But as it shows a great and is a proof of a
virtuous mind to despise calumny, it is the proof of a guilty mind to
despise a specific accusation, when made before a competent authority,
and with competent means to prove it. As Mr. Hastings's conduct was what
no man living expected, I will venture to say that no expression can do
it justice but his own. Upon reading the letter, and a motion being made
that Rajah Nundcomar be brought before the board to prove the charge
against the Governor-General, the Governor-General enters the following
minute.

"Before the question is put, I declare that I will not suffer Nundcomar
to appear before the board as my accuser. I know what belongs to the
dignity and character of the first member of this administration. I will
not sit at this board in the character of a criminal, nor do I
acknowledge the members of this board to be my judges. I am reduced on
this occasion to make the declaration, that I look upon General
Clavering, Colonel Mons