Those who have patiently submitted to imprisonment,--those who have not flinched from the scourge,--those who have been as unmoved as marble under torture,--those who have laughed at the menaces of death itself,--have instantly given way, when it has been attempted to subject them to any of those pollutions by which they lose caste.

To this caste they are bound by all laws of all descriptions, human and divine; and inveterate usage has radicated it in them to a depth and with an adhesion with which no other known prejudice has been known to exist.

Tyranny is therefore armed against them with a greater variety of weapons than are found in its ordinary stores.
This, amongst a thousand other considerations, speaks to us in very authoritative language with what care and circumspection we ought to handle people so delicate.

In the course of this trial your Lordships will see with horror the use which Mr.Hastings made, through several of his wicked and abominable instruments, chosen from the natives themselves, of these superadded means of oppression.

I shall prove, in the course of this trial, that he has put his own menial domestic servant,--a wretch totally dependent,--a wretch grossly ignorant,--the common instrument of his bribery and peculation,--he has enthroned him, I say, on the first seat of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which was to decide upon the castes of all those people, including their rank, their family, their honor, and their happiness here, and, in their judgment, their salvation hereafter.