I do, then, declare my conviction, and wish it may stand recorded to posterity, that there never was a bad man that had ability for good service.  It is not in the nature of such men; their minds are so distorted to selfish purposes, to knavish, artificial, and crafty means of accomplishing those selfish ends, that, if put to any good service, they are poor, dull, helpless.  Their natural faculties never have that direction; they are paralytic on that side; the muscles, if I may use the expression, that ought to move it, are all dead.  They know nothing, but how to pursue selfish ends by wicked and indirect means.  No man ever knowingly employed a bad man on account of his abilities, but for evil ends.  Mr. Hastings knew this man to be bad; all the world knew him to be bad; and how did he employ him?  In such a manner as that he might be controlled by others?  A great deal might be said for him, if this had been the case.  There might be circumstances in which such a man might be used in a subordinate capacity.  But who ever thought of putting such a man virtually in possession of the whole authority both of the Committee and the Council-General, and of the revenues of the whole country?

As soon as we find Gunga Govind Sing here, we find him employed in the way in which he was meant to be employed:  that is to say, we find him employed in taking corrupt bribes and corrupt presents for Mr. Hastings.  Though the Committee were tools in his hands, he was a tool in the hands of Mr. Hastings; for he had, as we shall prove, constant, uniform, and close communications with Mr. Hastings.  And, indeed, we may be saved a good deal of the trouble of proof; for Mr. Hastings himself, by acknowledging him to be his bribe-broker, has pretty well authenticated a secret correspondence between them.  For the next great bribe as yet discovered to be taken by Mr. Hastings, about the time of his great operation of 1781, was the bribe of 40,000_l._, which we charge to have been privately taken from one of two persons, but from which is not yet ascertained, but paid to him through this flagitious black agent of his iniquities, Gunga Govind Sing.  The discovery is made by another agent of his, called Mr. Larkins, one of his white bribe-confidants, and by him made Accountant-General to the Supreme Presidency.  For this sum, so clandestinely and corruptly taken, he received a bond to himself, on his own account, as for money lent to the Company.  For, upon the frequent, pressing, tender solicitations of the Court of Directors, always insinuated to him in a very delicate manner, Mr. Hastings had written to Mr. Larkins to find out, if he could, some of his own bribes; and accordingly Mr. Larkins sent over an account of various bribes,—­an account which, even before it comes directly in evidence before you, it will be pleasant to your Lordships to read.  In this account, under the head, “Dinagepore, No. 1,” I find “Duplicate copy of the particulars of debts, in which the component parts