professedly on
the records of the Company, on account of the very qualification of that
enmity. Was he a wretch, the basest of mankind, when opposed to Mr.
Hastings? Was he not as much a wretch, and as much the basest of
mankind, when Mr. Hastings employed him in the prosecution of the first
magistrate and Mahometan of the first descent in Asia? Mr. Hastings
shall not qualify and disqualify men at his pleasure; he must accept
them such as they are; and it is a presumption of his guilt accompanying
the charge, (which I never will separate from it,) that he would not
suffer the man to be produced who made the accusation. And I therefore
contend, that, as the accusation was so made, so witnessed, so detailed,
so specific, so entered upon record, and so entered upon record in
consequence of the inquiries ordered by the Company, his refusal and
rejection of inquiry into it is a presumption of his guilt.

He is full of his idea of dignity. It is right for every man to preserve
his dignity. There is a dignity of station, which a man has in trust to
preserve; there is a dignity of personal character, which every man by
being made man is bound to preserve. But you see Mr. Hastings's idea of
dignity has no connection with integrity; it has no connection with
honest fame; it has no connection with the reputation which he is bound
to preserve. What, my Lords, did he owe nothing to the Company that had
appointed him? Did he owe nothing to the legislature,--did he owe
nothing to your Lordships, and to the House of Commons, who had
appointed him? Did he owe nothing to himself? to the country that bore
him? Did he owe nothing to the world, as to its opinion, to which every
public man owes a reputation? What an example was here held out to the
Company's servants!

Mr. Hastings says, "This may come into a court of justice; it will come
into a court of justice: I reserve my defence on the occasion till it
comes into a court of justice, and here I make no opposition to it." To
this I answer, that the Company did not order him so to reserve himself,
but ordered him to be an inquirer into those things. Is it a lesson to
be taught to the inferior servants of the Company, that, provided they
can escape out of a court of justice by the back-doors and sally-ports
of the law, by artifice of pleading, by those strict and rigorous rules
of evidence which have been established for the protection of innocence,
but which by them might be turned to t