They are men whose characters this country
will ever respect, honor, and revere, both the living and the dead,--the
dead for the living, and the living for the dead. They will altogether
be revered for a conduct honorable and glorious to Great Britain, whilst
their names stand as they now do, unspotted by the least imputation of
oppression, breach of faith, perjury, bribery, or any other fraud
whatever. I know there was a faction formed against them upon that very
account. Be corrupt, you have friends; stem the torrent of corruption,
you open a thousand venal mouths against you. Men resolved to do their
duty must be content to suffer such opprobrium, and I am content; in the
name of the living and of the dead, and in the name of the Commons, I
glory in our having appointed some good servants at least to India.
But to proceed. "This system was not," says he, "of my making." You
would, then, naturally imagine that the persons who made this abominable
system had also made some tyrannous use of it. Let us see what use they
made of it during the time of their majority in the Council. There was
an arrear of subsidy due from the Nabob. How it came into arrear we
shall consider hereafter. The Nabob proposed to pay it by taxing the
jaghires of his family, and taking some money from the Begum.
Pages:
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478