The prosecution was not the pursuit of mean and
subordinate persons, who might with safety to the public interest remain
in their seats during such an inquiry into their conduct. It appears
very doubtful, whether, if there were grounds for such a prosecution, a
proceeding in Great Britain were not more politic than one in Bengal.
Such a prosecution ought not to have been ordered by the Directors, but
upon grounds that would have fully authorized the recall of the
gentleman in question. This prosecution, supposing it to have been
seriously undertaken, and to have succeeded, must have tended to weaken
the government, and to degrade it in the eyes of all India. On the other
hand, to intrust a man, armed as he was with all the powers of his
station, and indeed of the government, with the conduct of a prosecution
against himself, was altogether inconsistent and absurd. The same letter
in which they give these orders exhibits an example which sets the
inconsistency of their conduct in a stronger light, because the case is
somewhat of a similar nature, but infinitely less pressing in its
circumstances.
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