with all the aids of leisure and authority, would have proved
ineffectual. I dare appeal to the public records, to the testimony
of those who have opportunities of knowing me, and even to the
detail which the public voice can report of the past acts of this
government, that my time has been neither idly nor uselessly
employed; yet such are the cares and embarrassments of this various
state, that, although much may be done, much more, even in matters
of moment, must necessarily remain neglected. To select from the
miscellaneous heap which each day's exigencies present to our
choice those points on which the general welfare of your affairs
most essentially depends, to provide expedients for future
advantages, and guard against probable evils, are all that your
administration can faithfully promise to perform for your service,
with their united labors most diligently exerted. They cannot look
back without sacrificing the objects of their immediate duty, which
are those of your interest, to endless researches, which can
produce no real good, and may expose your affairs to all the
ruinous consequences of personal malevolence, both here and at
home."

My Lords, you see here, that, after admitting that he has promised to
the Court of Directors to do what they ordered him to do, (and he had
promised to make a radical reform in their whole service, and to cure
those abuses which they have stated,) he declares that he will not
execute them; he pleads a variety of other occupations; but as to that
great fundamental grievance he was appointed to eradicate, he declares
he will not even attempt it. "Why did you promise?"--it naturally occurs
to ask him that question. "Why," says he, "you will readily perceive
that I must have been sincere in those declarations; since it would
have argued great indiscretion to have made them, had I known my
inability to perform them." This is a kind of argument that belongs to
Mr. Hastings exclusively. Most other people would say, "You may judge of
the sincerity of my promises by my zeal in the performance"; but he
says, "You may judge of the sincerity of my promises, because I would
not promise, if I had not thought I should be able to perform." It runs
in this ridiculous circle: "I promised to obey the Court of Directors;
therefore I knew that I could obey them: but I could not obey them;
therefore I was ab