The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X | Page 9

of corruption, in which the most eminent figure in the
crowd, the principal figure as it were in the piece, was not Mr. Hastings
himself. There were a great many others involved; for all departments
were corrupted and vitiated. But you could not open a page in which
you did not see Mr. Hastings, or in which you did not see Cantoo
Baboo. Either the black or white side of Mr. Hastings constantly was
visible to the world in every part of these transactions.
With the other gentlemen, who were visible too, I have at present no
dealing. Mr. Hastings, instead of using any management on that
occasion, instantly set up his power and authority, directly against the
majority of the Council, directly against his colleagues, directly against
the authority of the East India Company and the authority of the act of
Parliament, to put a dead stop to all these inquiries. He broke up the
Council, the moment they attempted to perform this part of their duty.
As the evidence multiplied upon him, the daring exertions of his power
in stopping all inquiries increased continually. But he gave a credit and
authority to the evidence by these attempts to suppress it.
Your Lordships have heard that among the body of the accusers of this
corruption there was a principal man in the country, a man of the first
rank and authority in it, called Nundcomar, who had the management

of revenues amounting to 150,000l. a year, and who had, if really
inclined to play the small game with which he has been charged by his
accusers, abundant means to gratify himself in playing great ones; but
Mr. Hastings has himself given him, upon the records of the Company,
a character which would at least justify the Council in making some
inquiry into charges made by him.
First, he was perfectly competent to make them, because he was in the
management of those affairs from which Mr. Hastings is supposed to
have received corrupt emolument. He and his son were the chief
managers in those transactions. He was therefore perfectly competent
to it.--Mr. Hastings has cleared his character; for though it is true, in the
contradictions in which Mr. Hastings has entangled himself, he has
abused and insulted him, and particularly after his appearance as an
accuser, yet before this he has given this testimony of him, that the
hatred that had been drawn upon him, and the general obloquy of the
English nation, was on account of his attachment to his own prince and
the liberties of his country. Be he what he might, I am not disposed, nor
have I the least occasion, to defend either his conduct or his memory.
It is to no purpose for Mr. Hastings to spend time in idle objections to
the character of Nundcomar. Let him be as bad as Mr. Hastings
represents him. I suppose he was a caballing, bribing, intriguing
politician, like others in that country, both black and white. We know
associates in dark and evil actions are not generally the best of men; but
be that as it will, it generally happens that they are the best of all
discoverers. If Mr. Hastings were the accuser of Nundcomar, I should
think the presumptions equally strong against Nundcomar, if he had
acted as Mr. Hastings has acted.--He was not only competent, but the
most competent of all men to be Mr. Hastings's accuser. But Mr.
Hastings has himself established both his character and his competency
by employing him against Mahomed Reza Khân. He shall not blow hot
and cold. In what respect was Mr. Hastings better than Mahomed Reza
Khân, that the whole rule, principle, and system of accusation and
inquiry should be totally reversed in general, nay, reversed in the
particular instance, the moment he became accuser against Mr.
Hastings?--Such was the accuser. He was the man that gave the bribes,

and, in addition to his own evidence, offers proof by other witnesses.
What was the accusation? Was the accusation improbable, either on
account of the subject-matter or the actor in it? Does such an
appointment as that of Munny Begum, in the most barefaced evasion of
his orders, appear to your Lordships a matter that contains no just
presumptions of guilt, so that, when a charge of bribery comes upon it,
you are prepared to reject it, as if the action were so clear and proper
that no man could attribute it to an improper motive? And as to the
man,--is Mr. Hastings a man against whom a charge of bribery is
improbable? Why, he owns it. He is a professor of it. He reduces it into
scheme and system. He glories in it. He turns it to merit, and declares it
is the best way of supplying the