Neither does it appear that the
administrator, so by the said Hastings nominated and removed, was
properly charged and called to answer for the said recited
irregularities, or for the _many others_ not recited, but _attributed
solely_ to him; nor has any plea or excuse from him been transmitted to
the board, or to the Court of Directors; but he was, at the instance of
the said Hastings, deprived of his said office, contrary to the
principles of natural justice, in a violent and arbitrary manner; which
proceeding, combined with the example made of his predecessor, must
necessarily leave to the person who should succeed to the said office no
distinct principle upon which he might act with safety. But in comparing
the consequences of the two delinquencies charged, the failure of the
payment of the revenues (from whatever cause it may arise) is more
likely to be avoided than any severe course towards the inhabitants: as
the former fault was, besides the deprivation of office, attended with
two imprisonments, with a menace of death, and an actual death, in
disgrace, poverty, and insolvency; whereas the latter, namely, the
oppression, and thereby the total ruin, of the country, charged on the
second administrator, was only followed by loss of office,--although,
he, the said Warren Hastings, did farther assert (but with what truth
does not appear) that the collection of the last administrator had
fallen much short of the revenue of the province.
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