The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

applied.—That no evidence has been produced to prove that it was true, nor any ground of
argument stated to show that it might be credible, that any native of India had voluntarily
and gratuitously given money privately to the said Warren Hastings, that is, without some
prospect of a benefit in return, or some dread of his resentment, if he refused. That it is not
a thing to be believed, that any native would give large sums privately to a Governor, which
he refused to give or lend publicly to government, unless it were to derive some adequate
secret advantage from the favor, or to avoid some mischief from the enmity of such
Governor.—That the late confessions made by the said Warren Hastings of money received
against law are no proof that he did not originally intend to appropriate the same to his own
use, such confessions having been made at a suspicious moment, when, and not before, he
was apprised of the inquiries commenced in the House of Commons, and when a dread of
the consequence of those inquiries might act upon his mind. That such confessions, from
the obscure, intricate, and contradictory manner in which they are made, imply guilt in the
said Warren Hastings, as far as they go; that they do not furnish any color of reason to
conclude that he has confessed all the money which he may have corruptly received; but
that, on the contrary, they warrant a just and reasonable presumption, that, in discovering
some part of the bribes he had received, he hoped to lull suspicion, and thereby conceal and
secure the rest.

That the Court of Directors, when the former accounts of these transactions came before
them, did show an evident disposition not to censure the said Warren Hastings, but to give
the most favorable construction to his conduct; that, nevertheless, they found themselves
obliged "to confess that the statement of those transactions appeared to them in many parts
so unintelligible, that they felt themselves under the necessity of calling on the Governor-
General for an explanation, agreeably to his promise voluntarily made to them." That their

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