ely into a preliminary explanation of the several
matters in charge, it might be to the prejudice of an early trial of the
substantial merits of each article. We have weighed and considered this
maturely. We have compared exactly the time with the matter, and we have
found that we are obliged to do as all men must do who would manage
their affairs practicably, to make our opinion of what might be most
advantageous to the business conform to the time that is left to perform
it in. We must, as all men must, submit affairs to time, and not think
of making time conform to our wishes; and therefore, my Lords, I very
willingly fall in with the inclinations of the gentlemen with whom I
have the honor to act, to come as soon as possible to close fighting,
and to grapple immediately and directly with the corruptions of
India,--to bring before your Lordships the direct articles, to apply the
evidence to the articles, and to bring the matter forward for your
Lordships' decision in that manner which the confidence we have in the
justice of our cause demands from the Commons of Great Britain.

My Lords, these are the opinions of those with whom I have the honor to
act, and in their opinions I readily acquiesce. For I am far from
wishing to waste any of your Lordships' time upon any matter merely
through any opinion I have of the nature of the business, when at the
same time I find that in the opinion of others it might militate against
the production of its full, proper, and (if I may so say) its immediate
effect.

It was my design to class the crimes of the late Governor of Bengal,--to
show their mutual bearings,--how they were mutually aided and grew and
were formed out of each other. I proposed first of all to show your
Lordships that they have their root in that which is the origin of all
evil, avarice and rapacity,--to show how that led to prodigality of the
public money,--and how prodigality of the public money, by wasting the
treasures of the East India Company, furnished an excuse to the
Governor-General to break its faith, to violate all its most solemn
engagements, and to fall with a hand of stern, ferocious, and
unrelenting rapacity upon all the allies and dependencies of the
Company. But I shall be obliged in some measure to abridge this plan;
and as your Lordships already possess, from what I had the honor to
state on Saturday, a general view of this matter, you will be in a
condition to pursue it when the several arti