* *

My Lords, I am come now near the period of this class of Mr. Hastings's
bribes. I am a little exhausted. There are many circumstances that might
make me wish not to delay this business by taking up another day at your
Lordships' bar, in order to go through this long, intricate scene of
corruption. But my strength now fails me. I hope within a very short
time, to-morrow or the next court-day, to finish it, and to go directly
into evidence, as I long much to do, to substantiate the charge; but it
was necessary that the evidence should be explained. You have heard as
much of the drama as I could go through: bear with my weakness a little:
Mr. Larkins's letter will be the epilogue to it. I have already incurred
the censure of the prisoner; I mean to increase it, by bringing home to
him the proof of his crimes, and to display them in all their force and
turpitude. It is my duty to do it; I feel it an obligation nearest to my
heart.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] See this letter in the Appendix to the Eighth and Sixteenth Charges,
Vol. IX. pp. 319-325, in the present edition.

SPEECH

ON

THE SIXTH ARTICLE OF CHARGE.

FOURTH DAY: THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1789.

My Lords,--When I had the honor last to address you from this place, I
endeavored to press this position upon your minds, and to fortify it by
the example of the proceedings of Mr. Hastings,--that obscurity and
inaccuracies in a matter of account constituted a just presumption of
fraud. I showed, from his own letters, that his accounts were confused
and inaccurate. I am ready, my Lords, to admit that there are situations
in which a minister in high office may use concealment: it may be his
duty to use concealment from the enemies of his masters; it may be
prudent to use concealment from his inferiors in the service. It will
always be suspicious to use concealment from his colleagues and
cooerdinates in office; but when, in a money transaction, any man uses
concealment with regard to them to whom the money belongs, he is guilty
of a fraud. My Lords, I have shown you that Mr. Hastings kept no
account, by his own confession, of the moneys that he had privately
taken, as he pretends, for the Company's service, and we have but too
much reason to presume for his own. We have shown you, my Lords, that he
has not only no accounts, but no memory; we have shown that he does not
even understand his own motives; that, when called upon to recollect
them, he begs to guess