A total neglect of duty in this respect, however
culpable, is not to be compared, either in its nature or in its
consequences, with the destructive principles on which they have acted.
It has been their practice, if not system, to inquire, to censure, and
not to punish. As long as the misconduct of persons in power in Bengal
was encouraged by nothing but the hopes of concealment, it may be
presumed that they felt some restraint upon their actions, and that they
stood in some awe of the power placed over them; whereas it is to be
apprehended that the late conduct of the Court of Directors tells them,
in effect, that they have nothing to fear from the certainty of a
discovery.
On the same principle on which your Committee have generally limited
their researches to the persons placed by Parliament or raised or put in
nomination by the Court of Directors to the highest station in Bengal,
it was also their original wish to limit those inquiries to the period
at which Parliament interposed its authority between the Company and
their servants, and gave a new constitution to the Presidency of Fort
William.
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