Edmund Burke

A governor is to conform himself to the laws of his own country, to the stipulations of those that employ him, and not to the lewd customs of any other country: those customs are more honored in the breach than in the observance.

Hastings has received the two lac of rupees, then you will find that he was guilty, without color or pretext of any kind whatever, of acting in violation of his covenant, of acting in violation of the laws, and all the rules of honor and…

From all these circumstances I infer that no man could have endured this load of infamy, and to this time have given no explanation of his conduct, unless for the reason which this learned counsel gives, and which your Lordships and the…

Hastings was, I say, from those accumulated circumstances, bound to get rid of the infamy of a conduct which could be attributed to nothing but base and sinister motives, and which could have no effect but to convince men of his…

For, being no longer under the terror of the law, which, he said, restrained him from making his defence, he was then bound to give that satisfaction to his masters and the world which every man in honor is bound to do, when a grave…

From their own state of the case they would have it inferred that the fault was not in their way of representing it, but in the infirmity, confusion, and disorder of the proofs themselves; but this, I trust we shall satisfy you, is by no…

Every one knows how true it is of evidence, juncta juvant: but here everything is broken and smashed to pieces, and nothing but disorder appears through the whole.

To say that the opinions of learned men, though even thus obtained, may not have weight with this court, or with any court, is a kind of compliment I cannot pay to them at the expense of that common nature in which I and all human beings…

Hastings flies not to a court for trial, but as a sanctuary to secure him from it.

You do not presume that a man is innocent because he is in a sanctuary: you know, that, so far from demonstrating his innocence, it demonstrates his guilt.

And if this be the case, as he asserts it to be, with an under servant, think what must be the case of the upper servant of all: for, if an inferior servant is not to be brought to justice, what must be the situation of a Governor-General?

Hastings, in desiring to be tried in a court of justice, convicts himself of presumptive guilt.

Hastings reserves himself for a court of justice: that single circumstance, my Lords, proves that he was guilty.

And never did a man submit to infamy for anything but its true reward, money.

But let us see if there be any presumption in his favor to rebut the presumption which he knew was irresistible, and which, by making no defence for his conduct, and stopping the inquiry, must necessarily lie upon him.

Francis was nothing, when the whole majority was in his hand, and he was in full power, there was a large, open, full field for inquiry; and he was bound to re-institute that inquiry, and to clear his character before his judges and before…

For there is something so base and contemptible in the crimes of peculation and bribery, that, when they come to be urged home and strongly against a man, as here they are urged, nothing but a consciousness of guilt can possibly make a…

Under this promise he has remained from that time to the time you see him at your bar, and he has neither denied, exculpated, explained, or apologized for his conduct in any one single instance.

And at the same time that there is not one word of denial, or the least attempt at a refutation of the charge, he has loaded the records with all manner of minutes, proceedings, and letters relative to everything but the fact itself.

I do think, that, of all the corruptions which he has not owned, but has not denied, or of those which he does in effect own, and of which he brings forward the evidence himself, the taking and claiming under color of an entertainment is…

My Lords, you have the blood of nobles,--if not, you have the blood of men in your veins: you feel as nobles, you feel as men.

You have seen, that, when he takes two hundred pounds a day for his entertainment, he tells you that in this very act he is starving fourteen hundred of the ancient nobility and gentry.

His is unlike the generous rapacity of the noble eagle, who preys upon a living, struggling, reluctant, equal victim; his is like that of the ravenous vulture, who falls upon the decayed, the sickly, the dying, and the dead, and only…

The Resident declares, that, even with some of the highest rank, he could not avoid discovering, under all the pride of Eastern manners, the manifest marks of penury and want.

It was necessary to begin with reforming the useless servants of the court, and retrenching the idle parade of elephants, menageries, &c., which loaded the civil list.