hole of the bribe that was
received by Mr. Hastings in consequence of delivering up the whole
management of the government of the country to that improper person whom
he nominated for it. My Lords, from the proofs that will be adduced
before you, there is great probability that he received very nearly a
hundred thousand pounds; there is positive proof of his receiving fifty;
and we have chosen only to charge him with that of which there is such
an accumulated body of proof as to leave no doubt upon the minds of your
Lordships. All this I say, because we are perfectly apprised of the
sentiments of the public upon this point: when they hear of the enormity
of Indian peculation, when they see the acts done, and compare them
with the bribes received, the acts seem so enormous and the bribes
comparatively so small, that they can hardly be got to attribute them to
that motive. What I mean to state is this: that, from a collective view
of the subject, your Lordships will be able to judge that enormous
offences have been committed, and that the bribe which we have given in
proof is a specimen of the nature and extent of those enormous bribes
which extend to much greater sums than we are able to prove before you
in the manner your Lordships would like and expect.

I have already remarked to your Lordships, that, after this charge was
brought and recorded before the Council in spite of the resistance made
by Mr. Hastings, in which he employed all the power and authority of his
station, and the whole body of his partisans and associates in iniquity,
dispersed through every part of these provinces,--after he had taken all
these steps, finding himself pressed by the proof and pressed by the
presumption of his resistance to the inquiry, he did think it necessary
to make something like a defence. Accordingly he has made what he calls
a justification, which did not consist in the denial of that fact, or
any explanation of it. The mode he took for his defence was abuse of his
colleagues, abuse of the witnesses, and of every person who in the
execution of his duty was inquiring into the fact, and charging them
with things which, if true, were by no means sufficient to support him,
either in defending the acts themselves, or in the criminal means he
used to prevent inquiry into them. His design was to mislead their
minds, and to carry them from the accusation and the proof of it. With
respect to the passion, violence, and intemperate heat