this Committee, under these false and fraudulent bonds, he states thus:—­“I should have deemed it particularly dishonorable to receive for my own use money tendered by men of a certain class, from whom I had interdicted the receipt of presents to my inferiors, and bound them by oath not to receive them:  I was therefore more than ordinarily cautious to avoid the suspicion of it, which would scarcely have failed to light upon me, had I suffered the money to be brought to my own house, or that of any person known to be in trust for me.”

My Lords, here he comes before you, avowing that he knew the practice of taking money from these people was a thing dishonorable in itself.  “I should have deemed it particularly dishonorable to receive for my own use money tendered by men of a certain class, from whom I had interdicted the receipt of presents to my inferiors, and bound them by oath not to receive them.”  He held it particularly dishonorable to receive them; he had bound others by an oath not to receive them:  but he received them himself; and why does he conceal it?  “Why, because,” says he, “if the suspicion came upon me, the dishonor would fall upon my pate.”  Why did he, by an oath, bind his inferiors not to take these bribes?  “Why, because it was base and dishonorable so to do; and because it would be mischievous and ruinous to the Company’s affairs to suffer them to take bribes.”  Why, then, did he take them himself?  It was ten times more ruinous, that he, who was at the head of the Company’s government, and had bound up others so strictly, should practise the same himself; and “therefore,” says he, “I was more than ordinarily cautious.”  What! to avoid it?  “No; to carry it on in so clandestine and private a manner as might secure me from the suspicion of that which I know to be detestable, and bound others up from practising.”

We shall prove that the kind of men from whom he interdicted his Committee to receive bribes were the identical men from whom he received them himself.  If it was good for him, it was good for them to be permitted these means of extorting; and if it ought at all to be practised, they ought to be admitted to extort for the good of the Company.  Rajah Nobkissin was one of the men from whom he interdicted them to receive bribes, and from whom he received a bribe for his own use.  But he says he concealed it from them, because he thought great mischief might happen even from their suspicion of it, and lest they should thereby be inclined themselves to practise it, and to break their oaths.

You take it, then, for granted that he really concealed it from them?  No such thing.  His principal confidant in receiving these bribes was Mr. Croftes, who was a principal person in this Board of Revenue, and whom he had made to swear not to take bribes:  he is the confidant, and the very receiver, as we shall prove to your Lordships.  What will your Lordships think of his affirming and averring a direct falsehood, that he did it to conceal it from these men, when one of them was his principal confidant and agent in the transaction?  What will you think of his being more than ordinarily cautious to avoid the suspicion of it?  He ought to have avoided the crime, and the suspicion would take care of itself.