The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 10 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
History
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 10 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
My Lords, there is another reason why I choose to enter into the
presumptions drawn from his conduct and the fact, taking his conduct in
two parts, if it may be so expressed, _omission_ and _commission_, in
order that your Lordships should more fully enter into the consequences
of this system of bribery. But before I say anything upon that, I wish
your Lordships to be apprised, that the Commons, in bringing this bribe
of three lac and a half before your Lordships, do not wish by any means
to have it understood that this is the whole 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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