We have not brought before you an obscure offender, who, when his insignificance and weakness are weighed against the power of the prosecution, gives even to public justice something of the appearance of oppression: no, my Lords, we have brought before you the first man of India, in rank, authority, and station.
Burke emphasizes that the individual on trial is a significant figure, contrasting him with lesser offenders to highlight the case's importance.
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More from Edmund Burke
But the course of succession is the healthy habit of the British Constitution.
A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
Who could doubt but that, at any expense to the state, of which they understood nothing, they must pursue their private interests, which they understood but too well?
Do they mean to attaint and disable backwards all the kings that have reigned before the Revolution, and consequently to stain the throne of England with the blot of a continual usurpation?
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