rtain class, from whom I had interdicted the receipt of presents to
my inferiors, and bound them by oath not to receive them: I was
therefore more than ordinarily cautious to avoid the suspicion of it,
which would scarcely have failed to light upon me, had I suffered the
money to be brought to my own house, or that of any person known to be
in trust for me."

My Lords, here he comes before you, avowing that he knew the practice of
taking money from these people was a thing dishonorable in itself. "I
should have deemed it particularly dishonorable to receive for my own
use money tendered by men of a certain class, from whom I had
interdicted the receipt of presents to my inferiors, and bound them by
oath not to receive them." He held it particularly dishonorable to
receive them; he had bound others by an oath not to receive them: but he
received them himself; and why does he conceal it? "Why, because," says
he, "if the suspicion came upon me, the dishonor would fall upon my
pate." Why did he, by an oath, bind his inferiors not to take these
bribes? "Why, because it was base and dishonorable so to do; and because
it would be mischievous and ruinous to the Company's affairs to suffer
them to take bribes." Why, then, did he take them himself? It was ten
times more ruinous, that he, who was at the head of the Company's
government, and had bound up others so strictly, should practise the
same himself; and "therefore," says he, "I was more than ordinarily
cautious." What! to avoid it? "No; to carry it on in so clandestine and
private a manner as might secure me from the suspicion of that which I
know to be detestable, and bound others up from practising."

We shall prove that the kind of men from whom he interdicted his
Committee to receive bribes were the identical men from whom he received
them himself. If it was good for him, it was good for them to be
permitted these means of extorting; and if it ought at all to be
practised, they ought to be admitted to extort for the good of the
Company. Rajah Nobkissin was one of the men from whom he interdicted
them to receive bribes, and from whom he received a bribe for his own
use. But he says he concealed it from them, because he thought great
mischief might happen even from their suspicion of it, and lest they
should thereby be inclined themselves to practise it, and to break their
oaths.

You take it, then, for granted that he really concealed it from them? No
such thing. His