Whether that which has been brought forward on
these occasions or that which was left behind be more highly criminal, I
for one, as a person most concerned in this inquiry, do assure, your
Lordships that it is impossible for me to determine.
After we had brought forward this cause, (the greatest in extent that
ever was tried before any human tribunal, to say nothing of the
magnitude of its consequences,) we soon found, whatever the reasons
might be, without at present blaming the prisoner, without blaming your
Lordships, and far are we from imputing blame to ourselves, we soon
found that this trial was likely to be protracted to an unusual length.
The Managers of the Commons, feeling this, went up to their constituents
to procure from them the means of reducing it within a compass fitter
for their management and for your Lordships' judgment. Being furnished
with this power, a second selection was made upon the principles of the
first: not upon the idea that what we left could be less clearly
sustained, but because we thought a selection should be made upon some
juridical principle. With this impression on our minds, we reduced the
whole cause to four great heads of guilt and criminality. Two of them,
namely, Benares and the Begums, show the effects of his open violence
and injustice; the other two expose the principles of pecuniary
corruption upon which the prisoner proceeded: one of these displays his
passive corruption in receiving bribes, and the other his active
corruption, in which he has endeavored to defend his passive corruption
by forming a most formidable faction both abroad and at home.
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