a bond or not,--whether he shall take the money for his own use, or
whether he shall take it for the Company's use. But it may be said of
man as it is said of woman: the woman who deliberates is lost: the man
that deliberates about receiving bribes is gone. The moment he
deliberates, that moment his reason, the fortress, is lost, the walls
shake, down it comes,--and at the same moment enters Nobkissin into the
citadel of his honor and integrity, with colors flying, with drums
beating, and Mr. Hastings's garrison goes out, very handsomely indeed,
with the honors of war, all for the benefit of the Company. Mr. Hastings
consents to take the money from Nobkissin; Nobkissin gives the money,
and is perfectly satisfied.

Mr. Hastings took the money with a view to apply it to the Company's
service. How? To pay his own contingent bills. "Everything that I do,"
says he, "and all the money I squander, is all for the Company's
benefit. As to particulars of accounts, never look into them; they are
given you upon honor. Let me take this bribe: it costs you nothing to be
just or generous. I take the bribe: you sanctify it." But in every
transaction of Mr. Hastings, where we have got a name, there we have got
a crime. Nobkissin gave him the money, and did not take his bond, I
believe, for it; but Nobkissin, we find, immediately afterwards enters
upon the stewardship or management of one of the most considerable
districts in Bengal. We know very well, and shall prove to your
Lordships, in what manner such men rack such districts, and exact from
the inhabitants the money to repay themselves for the bribes which had
been taken from them. These bribes are taken under a pretence of the
Company's service, but sooner or later they fall upon the Company's
treasury. And we shall prove that Nobkissin, within a year from the time
when he gave this bribe, had fallen into arrears to the Company, as
their steward, to the amount of a sum the very interest of which,
according to the rate of interest in that country, amounted to more than
this bribe, taken, as was pretended, for the Company's service. Such are
the consequences of a banian's generosity, and of Mr. Hastings's
gratitude, so far as the interest of the country is concerned; and this
is a good way to pay Mr. Hastings's contingent accounts. But this is not
all: a most detestable villain is sent up into the country to take the
management of it, and the fortunes of all the great families in it