We say, then, not only that he governed arbitrarily, but corruptly,—­that is to say, that he was a giver and receiver of bribes, and formed a system for the purpose of giving and receiving them.  We wish your Lordships distinctly to consider that he did not only give and receive bribes accidentally, as it happened, without any system and design, merely as the opportunity or momentary temptation of profit urged him to it, but that he has formed plans and systems of government for the very purpose of accumulating bribes and presents to himself.  This system of Mr. Hastings’s government is such a one, I believe, as the British nation in particular will disown; for I will venture to say, that, if there is any one thing which distinguishes this nation eminently above another, it is, that in its offices at home, both judicial and in the state, there is less suspicion of pecuniary corruption attaching to them than to any similar offices in any part of the globe, or that have existed at any time:  so that he who would set up a system of corruption, and attempt to justify it upon the principle of utility, that man is staining not only the nature and character of office, but that which is the peculiar glory of the official and judicial character of this country; and therefore, in this House, which is eminently the guardian of the purity of all the offices of this kingdom, he ought to be called eminently and peculiarly to account.  There are many things, undoubtedly, in crimes, which make them frightful and odious; but bribery, filthy hands, a chief governor of a great empire receiving bribes from poor, miserable, indigent people, this is what makes government itself base, contemptible, and odious in the eyes of mankind.

My Lords, it is certain that even tyranny itself may find some specious color, and appear as a more severe and rigid execution of justice.  Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.  Conquest may cover its baldness with its own laurels, and the ambition of the conqueror may be hid in the secrets of his own heart under a veil of benevolence, and make him imagine he is bringing temporary desolation upon a country only to promote its ultimate advantage and his own glory.  But in the principles of that governor who makes nothing but money his object there can be nothing of this.  There are here none of those specious delusions that look like virtues, to veil either the governed or the governor.  If you look at Mr. Hastings’s merits, as he calls them, what are they?  Did he improve the internal state of the government by great reforms?  No such thing.  Or by a wise and incorrupt administration of justice?  No.  Has he enlarged the boundary of our government?  No:  there are but too strong proofs of his lessening it.  But his pretensions to merit are, that he squeezed more money out of the inhabitants of the country than other persons could have done,—­money got by oppression, violence, extortion from the poor, or the heavy hand of power upon the rich and great.