FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312  
313   314   315   316   317   >>  
e only thing said of Gunga Govind Sing in the account: he neither states how he came to be employed, or for what he was employed. It appears, however, from the transaction, as far as we can make our way through this darkness, that he had actually received 10,000_l._ of the money, which he did not account for, and that he pretended that there was an arrear of the rest. So here Mr. Hastings's bribe-agent admits that he had received 10,000_l._, but he will not account for it; he says there is an arrear of another 10,000_l._; and thus it appears that he was enabled to take from somebody at Dinagepore, by a cabooleat, 40,000_l._, of which Mr. Hastings can get but 20,000_l._: there is cent per cent loss upon it. Mr. Hastings was so exceedingly dissatisfied with this conduct of Gunga Govind Sing, that you would imagine a breach would have immediately ensued between them. I shall not anticipate what some of my honorable friends will bring before your Lordships; but I tell you, that, so far from quarrelling with Gunga Govind Sing, or being really angry with him, it is only a little pettish love quarrel with Gunga Govind Sing: _amantium irae amoris integratio est_. For Gunga Govind Sing, without having paid him one shilling of this money, attended him to the Ganges; and one of the last acts of Mr. Hastings's government was to represent this man, who was unfaithful even to fraud, who did not keep the common faith of thieves and robbers, this very man he recommends to the Company as a person who ought to be rewarded, as one of their best and most faithful servants. And how does he recommend him to be rewarded? By giving him the estate of another person,--the way in which Mr. Hastings desires to be always rewarded himself: for, in calling upon the Company's justice to give him some money for expenses with which he never charged them, he desires them to assign him the money upon some person of the country. So here Mr. Hastings recommends Gunga Govind Sing not only to trust, confidence, and employment, which he does very fully, but to a reward taken out of the substance of other people. This is what Mr. Hastings has done with Gunga Govind Sing; and if such are the effects of his anger, what must be the effect of his pleasure and satisfaction? Now I say that Mr. Hastings, who, in fact, saw this man amongst the very last with whom he had any communication in India, could not have so recommended him after this known fraud, in one business
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312  
313   314   315   316   317   >>  



Top keywords:

Hastings

 

Govind

 
person
 

rewarded

 

account

 
desires
 
recommends
 
employed
 

received

 

appears


Company
 

arrear

 

calling

 
robbers
 
thieves
 
justice
 
common
 

servants

 

faithful

 
unfaithful

expenses

 

recommend

 

estate

 

giving

 

effects

 
satisfaction
 

effect

 

pleasure

 

business

 

recommended


communication

 

employment

 
reward
 

confidence

 

charged

 

assign

 

country

 
substance
 

people

 

honorable


Dinagepore

 

enabled

 

admits

 

cabooleat

 

exceedingly

 
dissatisfied
 
states
 

transaction

 

pretended

 

darkness