prosecution of the Commons, I wish to have it understood, and I am sure
I shall not be disclaimed in it, is a prosecution not only for the
punishing a delinquent, a prosecution not merely for preventing this and
that offence, but it is a great censorial prosecution, for the purpose
of preserving the manners, characters, and virtues that characterize the
people of England. The situation in which we stand is dreadful. These
people pour in upon us every day. They not only bring with them the
wealth which they have acquired, but they bring with them into our
country the vices by which it was acquired. Formerly the people of
England were censured, and perhaps properly, with being a sullen,
unsocial, cold, unpleasant race of men, and as inconstant as the climate
in which they are born. These are the vices which the enemies of the
kingdom charged them with: and people are seldom charged with vices of
which they do not in some measure partake. But nobody refused them the
character of being an open-hearted, candid, liberal, plain, sincere
people,--qualities which would cancel a thousand faults, if they had
them. But if, by conniving at these frauds, you once teach the people of
England a concealing, narrow, suspicious, guarded conduct,--if you teach
them qualities directly the contrary to those by which they have
hitherto been distinguished,--if you make them a nation of concealers, a
nation of dissemblers, a nation of liars, a nation of forgers,--my
Lords, if you, in one word, turn them into a people of _banians_, the
character of England, that character which, more than our arms, and more
than our commerce, has made us a great nation, the character of England
will be gone and lost.
Our liberty is as much in danger as our honor and our national
character. We, who here appear representing the Commons of England, are
not wild enough not to tremble both for ourselves and for our
constituents at the effect of riches. _Opum metuenda potestas._ We dread
the operation of money. Do we not know that there are many men who wait,
and who indeed hardly wait, the event of this prosecution, to let loose
all the corrupt wealth of India, acquired by the oppression of that
country, for the corruption of all the liberties of this, and to fill
the Parliament with men who are now the object of its indignation?
To-day the Commons of Great Britain prosecute the delinquents of India:
to-morrow the delinquents of India may be the Commons of Great Britain.
We know, I say, and feel the force of money; and we now call upon your
Lordships for justice in this cause of money. We call upon you for the
preservation of our manners, of our virtues. We call upon you for our
national character. We call upon you for our liberties; and hope that
the freedom of the Commons will be preserved by the justice of the
Lords.
FOOTNOTES:
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END OF VOL. X.