Wherever a bribe is given on one hand, there is a balance accruing on the other.
Edmund Burke
The Public Record
Edmund Burke was an Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, and politician who is widely credited as the founder of the cultural and political philosophy of conservatism. Regarded as one of the most influential conservative thinkers and political writers of the 18th century, Burke spent the majority of his career in Great Britain and was elected as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1766 to 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party. His writings played a significant role in influencing public views and opinions in both Great Britain and France following the French Revolution in 1789, and he remains a major figure in modern conservative circles.
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These bribes are taken under a pretence of the Company's service, but sooner or later they fall upon the Company's treasury.
We know very well, and shall prove to your Lordships, in what manner such men rack such districts, and exact from the inhabitants the money to repay themselves for the bribes which had been taken from them.
The moment he deliberates, that moment his reason, the fortress, is lost, the walls shake, down it comes,--and at the same moment enters Nobkissin into the citadel of his honor and integrity, with colors flying, with drums beating, and Mr.
But it may be said of man as it is said of woman: the woman who deliberates is lost: the man that deliberates about receiving bribes is gone.
We come here to bring the matter to the test, and here it shall be brought to the test, between the Commons of Great Britain and this East India delinquent.
This will put an end to all idle prattle of malice, of groundless suspicions of guilt, and of ill-founded charges.
We suspect no man who does not give ground for suspicion; we accuse no man who has not given ground for accusation; and we do not attempt to bring before a court of justice any charges which we shall not be able decisively to prove.
I have been preying and plundering for you; I have gone through every stage of licentiousness and lewdness, wading through every species of dirt and corruption, for your advantage.
I have done a great deal for you; this is the jackal's portion; you have been the lion; I have been endeavoring to prog for you; I am your bribe-pander, your factor of corruption, exposing myself to every kind of scorn and ignominy, to…
If the money was taken without right, no claim of his could justify its being appropriated to himself: nor could the Company so appropriate it; for no man has a right to be generous out of another's goods.
He takes the bribe with an express intention of keeping it for his own use, and he calls upon the Company for their sanction.
By taking a bribe: bribes are no longer taken by him for the Company's service, but for his own.
In 1782 he says, with gratitude, that he has made a decent private competency; but in two years after he sunk to the extremity of private want.
He says, he had in vain, upon a former occasion, appealed to their honor, liberality, and generosity,--that he now appeals to their justice; and insists upon their decreeing this bribe--which he had taken without telling them from whom…
This bribe, which, like the former, he had taken without right, he tells them that he intends to apply to his own purposes, and he insists upon their sanction for so doing.
This was a bribe taken upon totally a different principle, according to his own avowal: it is a bribe not pretended to be received for the use of the Company,--a bribe taken absolutely entirely for himself.
He positively refused to give them any account whatever; and they have never, to this very day in which we speak, had any account that is at all clear or satisfactory.
But he forgets, that, being the Company's servant, the Company may bring a bill in Chancery against him, and force him upon oath to give an account.
He considers his being called upon by these people, to whom he ought as a faithful servant to give an account, and to do which he was bound by an act of Parliament specially intrusting him with the administration of the revenues, as a…
That private ipse plaudo he may have in this business, which is a business of money; but the applause of no other human creature will he have for giving such an account as he admits this to be,--irregular, uncertain, problematical, and of…
If there is no precision in accounts, there is nothing of worth in them.
Strange ground to expect applause!--a discovery which was no discovery at all!
Strange grounds to build confidence upon!--the rotten ground of corruption, accompanied with the infamy of its avowal!
Bribes was to be the foundation of their confidence in him, and the clear explanation of them was to entitle him to their applause!
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