First, the charge implies that he had rendered great services; and,
secondly, that he has been falsely accused.
My Lords, as to the great services, they have not, they cannot, come in
evidence before you. If you have received such evidence, you have
received it obliquely; for there is no other direct proof before your
Lordships of such services than that of there having been great
distresses and great calamities in India during his government. Upon
these distresses and calamities he has, indeed, attempted to justify
obliquely the corruption that has been charged upon him; but you have
not properly in issue these services. You cannot admit the evidence of
any such services received directly from him, as a matter of
recriminatory charge upon the House of Commons, because you have not
suffered that House to examine into the validity and merit of this plea.
We have not been heard upon this recriminatory charge, which makes a
considerable part of the demeanor of the prisoner; we cannot be heard
upon it; and therefore I demand, on the part of the Commons of Great
Britain, that it be dismissed from your consideration: and this I
demand, whether you take it as an attempt to render odious the conduct
of the Commons, whether you take it in mitigation of the punishment due
to the prisoner for his crimes, or whether it be adduced as a
presumption that so virtuous a servant never could be guilty of the
offences with which we charge him.
Pages:
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211