could be
so absurd as to attack a man's birth, when he is accusing his actions?
No, I have always spoken of the low, sordid, and mercenary habits in
which he was bred; I said nothing of his birth. But, my Lords, I was a
good deal surprised when a friend of his and mine yesterday morning put
into my hands, who had been attacking Mr. Hastings's life and conduct, a
pedigree. I was appealing to the records of the Company; they answer by
sending me to the Herald's Office. Many of your Lordships' pedigrees
are obscure in comparison with that of Mr. Hastings; and I only wonder
how he came to derogate from such a line of nobles by becoming a
contractor for bullocks.

A man may be an honest bullock-contractor, (God forbid that many of them
in this country should not be very honest!) but I find his terms were
nearly four times as high as those which the House of Commons had
condemned as exorbitant. They were not only unusually high, but the
bullocks were badly supplied, and the contract had not been fairly
advertised. It was therefore agreed to declare the same void at the
expiration of twelve months, on the 1st December, 1763. I say again,
that I do not condemn him for being a bullock-contractor; but I am
suspicious of his honesty, because he has been nursed in bad and vicious
habits. That of contracting with his masters is a bad habit, as he
himself has stated in a record which is printed by the House of Commons.
I condemn him for being a fraudulent bullock-contractor: for he was
turned out of that contract for fraudulent practices; it was declared
void, and given to another at a lower price. After it was so disposed
of, Mr. Hastings himself, condemning his own original contract, which
was at twelve rupees for a certain species of bullocks, took the
contract again at seven; and on these terms it continued. What I
therefore contend for is this, that he carried with him the spirit of a
fraudulent bullock-contractor through the whole of the Company's
service, in its greatest and most important parts.

My Lords, the wading through all these corruptions is an unpleasant
employment for me; but what am I to think of a man who holds up his
head so high, that, when a matter of account is in discussion, such as
appears in this very defence that I have in my hand, he declares he does
not know anything about it? He cannot keep accounts: that is beneath
him. We trace him throughout the whole of his career engaged in a great
variety of me