y in private life,--I say, when
this honorable House is acquainted it is from mutilated and garbled
assertions, founded on the testimony of such an evidence, without the
whole matter being fairly stated, I do hope and trust it will be
sufficient for them to reject _now_ these vague and unsupported charges,
in like manner as they were _before_ rejected by the Court of Directors
and his Majesty's ministers, when they were first made by General
Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis.--I must here interrupt the
course of my defence to explain on what grounds I employed or had any
connection with a man of so flagitious a character as Nundcomar."

My Lords, I hope this was a good and reasonable ground for me to
anticipate the defence which Mr. Hastings would make in this
House,--namely, on the known, recognized, infamous character of
Nundcomar, with regard to certain proceedings there charged at large,
with regard to one forgery for which he suffered and two other forgeries
with which Mr. Hastings charged him. I, who found that the Commons of
Great Britain had received that very identical charge of Nundcomar, and
given it to me in trust to make it good, did naturally, I hope
excusably, (for that is the only ground upon which I stand,) endeavor to
support that credit upon which the House acted. I hope I did so; and I
hope that the goodness of that intention may excuse me, if I went a
little too far on that occasion. I would have endeavored to support that
credit, which it was much Mr. Hastings's interest to shake, and which he
had before attempted to shake.

Your Lordships will have the goodness to suppose me now making my
apology, and by no manner of means intending to persist either in this,
or in anything which the House of Commons shall desire me not to declare
in their name. But the House of Commons has not denied me the liberty to
make you this just apology: God forbid they should! for they would be
guilty of great injustice, if they did. The House of Commons, whom I
represent, will likewise excuse me, their representative, whilst I have
been endeavoring to support their characters in the face of the world,
and to make an apology, and only an humble apology, for my conduct, for
having considered that act in the light that I represented it,--and
which I did merely from my private opinion, without any formal
instruction from the House. For there is no doubt that the House is
perfectly right, inasmuch as the House did