Is it fit for a governor to say, will Mr. Hastings say before this august assembly, “I may be accused in a court of justice,—­I am upon my defence,—­let all charges remain against me,—­I will not give you an account”?  Is it fit that a governor should sit with recorded bribery upon him at the head of a public board and the government of a great kingdom, when it is in his power by inquiry to do it away?  No:  the chastity of character of a man in that situation ought to be as dear to him as his innocence.  Nay, more depended upon it.  His innocence regarded himself; his character regarded the public justice, regarded his authority, and the respect due to the English in that country.  I charge it upon him, that not only did he suppress the inquiry to the best of his power, (and it shall be proved,) but he did not in any one instance endeavor to clear off that imputation and reproach from the English government.  He went further; he never denied hardly any of those charges at the time.  They are so numerous that I cannot be positive; some of them he might meet with some sort of denial, but the most part he did not.

The first thing a man under such an accusation owes to the world is to deny the charge; next, to put it to the proof; and lastly, to let inquiry freely go on.  He did not permit this, but stopped it all in his power.  I am to mention some exceptions, perhaps, hereafter, which will tend to fortify the principle tenfold.

He promised, indeed, the Court of Directors (to whom he never denied the facts) a full and liberal explanation of these transactions; which full and liberal explanation he never gave.  Many years passed; even Parliament took notice of it; and he never gave them a liberal explanation, or any explanation at all of them.  A man may say, “I am threatened with a suit in a court, and it may be very disadvantageous to me, if I disclose my defence.”  That is a proper answer for a man in common life, who has no particular character to sustain; but is that a proper answer for a governor accused of bribery, that accusation transmitted to his masters, and his masters giving credit to it?  Good God! is that a state in which a man is to say, “I am upon the defensive—­I am on my guard,—­I will give you no satisfaction,—­I have promised it, but I have already deferred it for seven or eight years”?  Is not this tantamount to a denial?

Mr. Hastings, with this great body of bribery against him, was providentially freed from Nundcomar, one of his accusers, and, as good events do not come alone, (I think there is some such proverb,) it did so happen that all the rest, or a great many of them, ran away.  But, however, the recorded evidence of the former charges continued; no new evidence came in; and Mr. Hastings enjoyed that happy repose which branded peculation, fixed and eternized upon the records of the Company, must leave upon a mind conscious of its own integrity.