ven me a noble allowance, I now make a charge upon you
for this sum of money, and intend to take a bribe in discharge of it."
Now suppose Lord Cornwallis, who sits in the seat, and I hope will long,
and honorably and worthily, fill the seat, which that gentleman
possessed,--suppose Lord Cornwallis, after never having complained of
the insufficiency of his salary, and after having but two years ago said
he had saved a sufficient competency out of it, should now tell you that
30,00_l._ a year was not enough for him, and that he was sinking into
want and distress, and should justify upon that alleged want taking a
bribe, and then make out a bill of contingent expenses to cover it,
would your Lordships bear this?

Mr. Hastings has told you that he wanted to borrow money for his own
use, and that he applied to Rajah Nobkissin, who generously pressed it
upon him as a gift. Rajah Nobkissin is a banian: you will be astonished
to hear of generosity in a banian; there never was a banian and
generosity united together: but Nobkissin loses his banian qualities at
once, the moment the light of Mr. Hastings's face beams upon him.
"Here," says Mr. Hastings, "I have prepared bonds for you."
"Astonishing! how can you think of the meanness of bonds? You call upon
me to lend you 34,000_l._, and propose bonds? No, you shall have it: you
are the Governor-General, who have a large and ample salary; but I know
you are a generous man, and I emulate your generosity: I give you all
this money." Nobkissin was quite shocked at Mr. Hastings's offering him
a bond. My Lords, a Gentoo banian is a person a little lower, a little
more penurious, a little more exacting, a little more cunning, a little
more money-making, than a Jew. There is not a Jew in the meanest corner
of Duke's Place in London that is so crafty, so much a usurer, so
skilful how to turn money to profit, and so resolved not to give any
money but for profit, as a Gentoo broker of the class I have mentioned.
But this man, however, at once grows generous, and will not suffer a
bond to be given to him; and Mr. Hastings, accordingly, is thrown into
very great distress. You see sentiment always prevailing in Mr.
Hastings. The sentimental dialogue which must have passed between him
and a Gentoo broker would have charmed every one that has a taste for
pathos and sentiment. Mr. Hastings was pressed to receive the money as a
gift. He really does not know what to do: whether to insist upon giving