His rule was, what a British governor, intrusted with the power of this country, was bound to do or to forbear.

If he has performed and if he has abstained as he ought, dismiss him honorably acquitted from your bar; otherwise condemn him.

He may resort to other principles and to other maxims; but this country will force him to be tried by its laws.

The law of this country recognizes that well-known crime called misconduct in office; it is a head of the law of England, and, so far as inferior courts are competent to try it, may be tried in them.

Here your Lordships' competence is plenary: you are fully competent both to inquire into and to punish the offence.
And, first, I am to state to your Lordships, by the direction of those whom I am bound to obey, the principles on which Mr.Hastings declares he has conducted his government,--principles which he has avowed, first in several letters written to the East India Company, next in a paper of defence delivered to the House of Commons explicitly, and more explicitly in his defence before your Lordships.