The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 10 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
page 27 of 401 (06%)
page 27 of 401 (06%)
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say than that the man is gone,--hanged justly, if you please; and that
it did so happen,--luckily for Mr. Hastings,--it so happened, that the relief of Mr. Hastings, and the justice of the court, and the resolution never to relax its rigor, did all concur just at a happy nick of time and moment; and Mr. Hastings, accordingly, had the full benefit of them all. His accuser was supposed to be what men may be, and yet very competent for accusers, namely, one of his accomplices in guilty actions,--one of those persons who may have a great deal to say of bribes. All that I contend for is, that he was in the closest intimacy with Mr. Hastings, was in a situation for giving bribes,--and that Mr. Hastings was proved afterwards to have received a sum of money from him, which may be well referred to bribes. This example had its use in the way in which it was intended to operate, and in which alone it could operate. It did not discourage forgeries: they went on at their usual rate, neither more nor less: but it put an end to all accusations against all persons in power for any corrupt practice. Mr. Hastings observes, that no man in India complains of him. It is generally true. The voice of all India is stopped. All complaint was strangled with the same cord that strangled Nundcomar. This murdered not only that accuser, but all future accusation; and not only defeated, but totally vitiated and reversed all the ends for which this country, to its eternal and indelible dishonor, had sent out a pompous embassy of justice to the remotest parts of the globe. But though Nundcomar was put out of the way by the means by which _he_ was removed, a part of the charge was not strangled with him. Whilst the process against Nundcomar was carrying on before Sir Elijah Impey, the |
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