ceiving bribes, and
gaining the glory of receiving them, they might take it into their heads
likewise to have their share in the same glory, as they were joined in
the same commission, enjoyed the same powers, and were subject to the
same restrictions. It was, indeed, scandalous in Mr. Hastings, not
behaving like a good, fair colleague in office, not to let them know
that he was going on in this career of receiving bribes, and to deprive
them of their share in the glory of it: but they were grovelling
creatures, who thought that keeping clean hands was some virtue.--"Well,
but you have applied some of these bribes to your own benefit: why did
you give no account of those bribes?" "I did not," he says, "because it
might have excited the envy of my colleagues." To be sure, if he was
receiving bribes for his own benefit, and they not receiving such
bribes, and if they had a liking to that kind of traffic, it is a good
ground of envy, that a matter which ought to be in common among them
should be confined to Mr. Hastings, and he therefore did well to conceal
it; and on the other hand, if we suppose him to have taken them, as he
pretends, for the Company's use, in order not to excite a jealousy in
his colleagues for being left out of this meritorious service, to which
they had an equal claim, he did well to take bonds for what ought to be
brought to the Company's account. These are reasons applicable to his
colleagues, who sat with him at the same board,--Mr. Macpherson, Mr.
Stables, Mr. Wheler, General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis:
he was afraid of exciting their envy or their jealousy.

You will next see another reason, and an extraordinary one it is, which
he gives for concealing these bribes from his inferiors. But I must
first tell your Lordships, what, till the proof is brought before you,
you will take on credit,--indeed, it is on his credit,--that, when he
formed the Committee of Revenue, he bound them by a solemn oath, "not,
under any name or pretence whatever, to take from any zemindar, farmer,
person concerned in the revenue, or any other, any gift, gratuity,
allowance, or reward whatever, or anything beyond their salary"; and
this is the oath to which he alludes. Now his reason for concealing his
bribes from his inferiors, this Committee, under these false and
fraudulent bonds, he states thus:--"I should have deemed it particularly
dishonorable to receive for my own use money tendered by men of a
ce