The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

appointed me to my trust, and consequently has acquitted me."—Has it, my Lords? I am
bold to say that the Commons are wholly guiltless of this charge. I will admit, if Parliament,
on a full state of his offences before them, and full examination of those offences, had
appointed him to the government, that then the people of India and England would have just
reason to exclaim against so flagitious a proceeding. A sense of propriety and decorum
might have restrained us from prosecuting. They might have been restrained by some sort
of decorum from pursuing him criminally. But the Commons stand before your Lordships
without shame. First, in their name we solemnly assure your Lordships that we had not in
our Parliamentary capacity (and most of us, myself I can say surely, heard very little, and
that in confused rumors) the slightest knowledge of any one of the acts charged upon this
criminal at either of the times of his being appointed to office, and that we were not guilty
of the nefarious act of collusion and flagitious breach of trust with which he presumes
obliquely to charge us; but from the moment we knew them, we never ceased to condemn
them by reports, by votes, by resolutions, and that we admonished and declared it to be the
duty of the Court of Directors to take measures for his recall, and when frustrated in the
way known to that court we then proceeded to an inquiry. Your Lordships know whether
you were better informed. We are, therefore, neither guilty of the precedent crime of
colluding with the criminal, nor the subsequent indecorum of prosecuting what we had
virtually and practically approved.

Secondly, several of his worst crimes have been committed since the last Parliamentary
renewal of his trust, as appears by the dates in the charge.

But I believe, my Lords, the judges—judges to others, grave and weighty counsellors and
assistants to your Lordships—will not, on reference, assert to your Lordships, (which God
forbid, and we cannot conceive, or hardly state in argument, if but for argument,) that, if

<<   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   >>

More intriguing information