We are not come
here to compromise matters; we do not admit [do admit?] that our fame,
our honors, nay, the very inquisitorial power of the House of Commons is
gone, if this man be not guilty.
My Lords, great and powerful as the House of Commons is, (and great and
powerful I hope it always will remain,) yet we cannot be insensible to
the effects produced by the introduction of forty millions of money into
this country from India. We know that the private fortunes which have
been made there pervade this kingdom so universally that there is not a
single parish in it unoccupied by the partisans of the defendant. We
should fear that the faction which he has thus formed by the oppression
of the people of India would be too strong for the House of Commons
itself, with all its power and reputation, did we not know that we have
brought before you a cause which nothing can resist.
* * * * *
I shall now, my Lords, proceed to state what has been already done in
this cause, and in what condition it now stands for your judgment.
An immense mass of criminality was digested by a committee of the House
of Commons; but although this mass had been taken from another mass
still greater, the House found it expedient to select twenty specific
charges, which they afterwards directed us, their Managers, to bring to
your Lordships' bar.
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