Edmund Burke

That which he intends to produce as a justification we charge, and your Lordships and the world will think, to be the heaviest aggravation of his crime.

But there are other circumstances further auxiliary in this business, which, from the very attempts to conceal it, prove beyond doubt the fraudulent and wicked nature of the transaction.

Did he owe nothing to the world, as to its opinion, to which every public man owes a reputation?

Hastings's idea of dignity has no connection with integrity; it has no connection with honest fame; it has no connection with the reputation which he is bound to preserve.

There is a dignity of station, which a man has in trust to preserve; there is a dignity of personal character, which every man by being made man is bound to preserve.

And I therefore contend, that, as the accusation was so made, so witnessed, so detailed, so specific, so entered upon record, and so entered upon record in consequence of the inquiries ordered by the Company, his refusal and rejection of…

Hastings shall not qualify and disqualify men at his pleasure; he must accept them such as they are; and it is a presumption of his guilt accompanying the charge, (which I never will separate from it,) that he would not suffer the man to…

Will you suffer this man to qualify and disqualify witnesses and prosecutors agreeably to the purposes which his own vengeance and corruption may dictate in one case, and which the defence of those corruptions may dictate in another?

Hastings himself, he was a person competent to accuse, a witness fit to be heard; and that is all I contend for.

And all this is done to discountenance inquiry, to bring odium upon his colleagues for doing their duty, and to prevent that inquiry which could alone clear his character.

If, indeed, joined with such circumstances, the accuser be a person of bad morals, then, I admit, those bad morals take away from their weight; but for a proof of that you must have some other grounds than the charges and the railing of…

And yet this man he calls the basest of mankind, a name which no man is entitled to call another till he has proved something to justify him in so doing; and notwithstanding his opulence, his high rank, station, and birth, he despises him…

Do I want any other presumption of his guilt, upon such an occasion, than such conduct as this?

Do mankind really, then, think that to be accused by men of honor, of weight, of character, upon probable charges, is an advantage to them, and that to be accused by the basest of mankind is a disadvantage?

He attempts to vilify the witness, he attempts to vilify those he supposes to be his accusers, he attempts to vilify the Council; he lags upon the accusation, he mixes it with other accusations, which had nothing to do with it, and out of…

You see there is not a word he says upon this occasion which has common sense in it; you see one great leading principle in it,--that he does not once attempt to deny the charge.

I have said nothing but what I believe and am morally certain I shall stand justified for in the eyes of my superiors and the eyes of the world; but I reserve to myself the liberty of adding my further sentiments in such a manner and form…

I cannot prove this in the direct letter of the law, but in my conscience I regard them as such, and I will give my reasons for it.

I will not sit at this board in the character of a criminal, nor do I acknowledge the members of this board to be my judges.

But as it shows a great and is a proof of a virtuous mind to despise calumny, it is the proof of a guilty mind to despise a specific accusation, when made before a competent authority, and with competent means to prove it.

You would imagine that he would have treated the accusation with a cold and manly disdain; that he would have challenged and defied inquiry, and desired to see his accuser face to face.

General accusations may be treated as calumnies; but particular accusations, like these, afford the defendant, if innocent, every possible means for making his defence: therefore the very making no defence at all would prove, beyond all…

My Lords, the next scene that I am to bring before you is the positive proof of corruption in this transaction, in which I am sure you already see that corruption must exist.

When your Lordships see all this in proof, your Lordships will justify me in saying that there never was (taking every part of the arrangement) such a direct, open violation of any trust.--I shall say no more with regard to the appointment…

Can you, then, have a doubt, after all these false pretences, after all this fraud, fabrication, and suppression which he made use of, that that 90,000l., of which he kept no account and transmitted no account, was money given to himself…