Hastings's motives were in acting against the sense of the East India Company, appointed by an act of Parliament to control him,--that he did it for a corrupt purpose, that all his pretences were false and fraudulent, and that he had his own corrupt views in the whole of the proceeding.
Burke accuses Hastings of acting against the interests of the East India Company for corrupt reasons.
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Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.
No experience has taught us that in any other course or method than that of an hereditary crown our liberties can be regularly perpetuated and preserved sacred as our hereditary right.
But an absurd theory on one side of a question forms no justification for alleging a false fact or promulgating mischievous maxims on the other.
This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction.
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