Now we are to show your Lordships what Mr. Hastings's conduct was upon all these occasions; and for this we mean to produce testimony recorded in the Company's books, and authentic documents taken from the public offices of that country. At the same time I do admit that there never was a positive testimony that did not stand something in need of the support of presumption: for, as we know that witnesses may be perjured, and as we know that documents can be forged, we have recourse to a known principle in the laws of all countries, that circumstances cannot lie; and therefore, if the testimony that is given was ever so clear and positive, yet, if it is contrary to the circumstances of the country, if it is contrary to the circumstances of the facts to which it alludes, if the deposition is totally adverse and alien to the characters of the persons, then I will say, that, though the testimonies should be many, though they should be consistent, and though they should be clear, yet they will still leave some degree of hesitation and doubt upon every mind timorous in the execution of justice, as every mind ought to be. If, for instance, ten witnesses were to swear that the Chief-Justice of England, that the Lord High-Chancellor, or the Archbishop of Canterbury, was seen, in the robes of his function, at noonday, robbing upon the highway, it is not the clearness, the weight, the authority of testimonies, that could make me believe it; I should attribute it to any cause, either corruption, mistake, error, or madness, rather than believe that fact. Why? Because it is totally alien to the character of the persons, the situation, the circumstances, and to all the rules of probability. But if, on the contrary, the crime charged has a perfect relation with the person, with his known conduct, with his known habits, with the situation and circumstances of the place that he is in, and with the very corrupt inherent nature of the act that he does, then much less proof than we are able to produce will serve; and according to the nature and strength of the presumptions arising from the inherent nature of a vicious principle and vicious motives in the act, will be strengthened the weakest evidence, or, if it comes to a sufficient height, the whole burden of proof will be turned upon the party accused. And thus we shall think ourselves bound to show your Lordships, in every step of this proceeding, that there is an inherent presumption of corruption in every act. We shall show the presumptions which preceded, we shall show the presumptions which accompanied the proof; and these, with the subsequent presumptions, will make it impossible to disbelieve them. Such a body of proof was never given upon any such occasion: and it is such proof as will prevail against the whole voice of corruption, that amazing, active, diligent, spreading voice, which has been made, by buzzing in every part of this country, sometimes to