principles of conquerors. If he has at any time taken any money from the
dependencies of the Company, he does not pretend that it was obtained
from their zeal and affection to our cause, or that it made their
submission more complete: very far from it. He says they ought to be
independent, and all that you have to do is to squeeze money from them.
In short, money is the beginning, the middle, and the end of every kind
of act done by Mr. Hastings: pretendedly for the Company, but really for
himself.

Having said so much about the origin, the first principle, both of that
which he makes his merit and which we charge as his demerit, the next
step is, that I should lay open to your Lordships, as clearly as I can,
what the sense of his employers, the East India Company, and what the
sense of the legislature itself, has been upon those merits and demerits
of money.

My Lords, the Company, knowing that these money transactions were likely
to subvert that empire which was first established upon them, did, in
the year 1765, send out a body of the strongest and most solemn
covenants to their servants, that they should take no presents from the
country powers, under any name or description, except those things which
were publicly and openly taken for the use of the Company,--namely,
_territories_ or _sums of money_ which might be obtained by treaty. They
distinguished such presents as were taken from any persons privately,
and unknown to them, and without their authority, from subsidies: and
that this is the true nature and construction of their order I shall
contend and explain afterwards to your Lordships. They have said,
nothing shall be taken for their private use; for though in that and in
every state there may be subsidiary treaties by which sums of money may
be received, yet they forbid their servants, their governors, whatever
application they might pretend to make of them, to receive, under any
other name or pretence, more than a certain, marked, simple sum of
money, and this not without the consent and permission of the Presidency
to which they belong. This is the substance, the principle, and the
spirit of the covenants, and will show your Lordships how radicated an
evil this of bribery and presents was judged to be.

When these covenants arrived in India, the servants refused at first to
execute them,--and suspended the execution of them, till they had
enriched themselves with presents. Eleven months elapsed, and i