If, then, this very
Genghis Khan, if Tamerlane, did not assume arbitrary power, what are you
to think of this man, so bloated with corruption, so bloated with the
insolence of unmerited power, declaring that the people of India have no
rights, no property, no laws,--that he could not be bound even by an
English act of Parliament,--that he was an arbitrary sovereign in India,
and could exact what penalties he pleased from the people, at the
expense of liberty, property, and even life itself? Compare this man,
this compound of pride and presumption, with Genghis Khan, whose
conquests were more considerable than Alexander's, and yet who made the
laws the rule of his conduct; compare him with Tamerlane, whose
Institutes I have before me. I wish to save your Lordships' time, or I
could show you in the life of this prince, that he, violent as his
conquests were, bloody as all conquests are, ferocious as a Mahometan
making his crusades for the propagation of his religion, he yet knew how
to govern his unjust acquisitions with equity and moderation. If any man
could be entitled to claim arbitrary power, if such a claim could be
justified by extent of conquest, by splendid personal qualities, by
great learning and eloquence, Tamerlane was the man who could have made
and justified the claim.
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