We are, therefore, neither guilty of the precedent crime of colluding with the criminal, nor the subsequent indecorum of prosecuting what we had virtually and practically approved.
Secondly, several of his worst crimes have been committed since the last Parliamentary renewal of his trust, as appears by the dates in the charge.
But I believe, my Lords, the judges--judges to others, grave and weighty counsellors and assistants to your Lordships--will not, on reference, assert to your Lordships, (which God forbid, and we cannot conceive, or hardly state in argument, if but for argument,) that, if one of the judges had received bribes before his appointment to an higher judiciary office, he would not still be open to prosecution.
So far from admitting it as a plea in bar, we charge, and we hope your Lordships will find it an extreme aggravation of his offences, that no favors heaped upon him could make him grateful, no renewed and repeated trusts could make him faithful and honest.
We have now gone through most of the general topics.
But he is not responsible, as being thanked by the Court of Directors.
He has had the thanks and approbation of the India Company for his services .-- We know too well here, I trust the world knows, and you will always assert, that a pardon from the crown is not pleadable here, that it cannot bar the impeachment of the Commons,--much less a pardon of the East India Company, though it may involve them in guilt which might induce us to punish them for such a pardon.

If any corporation by collusion with criminals refuse to do their duty in coercing them, the magistrates are answerable.
It is the use, virtue, and efficacy of Parliamentary judicial procedure, that it puts an end to this dominion of faction, intrigue, cabal, and clandestine intelligences.

The acts of men are put to their proper test, and the works of darkness tried in the face of day,--not the corrupted opinions of others on them, but their own intrinsic merits.

We charge it as his crime, that he bribed the Court of Directors to thank him for what they had condemned as breaches of his duty.
The East India Company, it is true, have thanked him.

They ought not to have done it; and it is a reflection upon their character that they did it.