"_My patience_," says he, "_was exhausted_." Your Lordships have, and
ought to have, a judicial patience. Mr. Hastings has none of any kind. I
hold that patience is one of the great virtues of a governor; it was
said of Moses, that he governed by patience, and that he was the meekest
man upon earth. Patience is also the distinguishing character of a
judge; and I think your Lordships, both with regard to us and with
regard to him, have shown a great deal of it: we shall ever honor the
quality, and if we pretend to say that we have had great patience in
going through this trial, so your Lordships must have had great patience
in hearing it. But this man's patience, as he himself tells you, was
soon exhausted. "I considered," he says, "the light in which such
behavior would have been viewed by his native sovereign, and I resolved
he should feel the power he had so long insulted. Forty or fifty lacs of
rupees would have been a moderate fine for Sujah ul Dowlah to exact,--he
who had demanded twenty-five lacs for the mere fine of succession, and
received twenty in hand, and an increased rent tantamount to
considerably above thirty lacs more; and therefore I rejected the offer
of twenty, with which the Rajah would have compromised for his guilt
when it was too late.
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