On the record
Hastings never dared, after the fact, to punish extortion in others, because he could not, without risking the discovery of bribery in himself.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgHastings never dared, after the fact, to punish extortion in others, because he could not, without risking the discovery of bribery in himself.
Burke points out that Hastings is unable to punish extortion without exposing his own corruption.
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They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.
Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.
I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.