He next examined the regulations proposed by Ministers for India, and the measures of the Directors; and asserted that they had improvidently, in a country peculiarly liable to temptation, abolished all the lawful rewards of the service, and left the country at the mercy of a handful of boys. He proceeded to examine the question of presents. He had always recommended, approved of, and enforced the covenants against them. He considered these covenants as indispensable in the present state of the country, when we were its rulers; but even then, to render them efficient, the public servants must have within their view the prospect of an honourable and attainable independence. Wealth and weakness can never safely be placed beside poverty and power. As for presents in themselves, he was firmly of opinion that, in honourable cases, it was not improper to receive them: that they were only improper in dishonourable cases: that presents had been allowed to be received from the earliest days of the Company; they had been received uninterruptedly for the space of a hundred and fifty years, and by men who sat in the Direction; they were a lawful part of the social system of the East. "In the early part of my life," he continued, "my labours were without emolument or laurels; and I hope the House cannot think that I ought not to be rewarded for my services to my country in the latter part of it. When I was first employed by the Company, their affairs abroad were in a condition much to be lamented. Misfortunes attended them in every part of their settlements, and the Nabobs looked with a jealous eye upon the small privileges and possessions they then enjoyed; though small, in danger everyday of being wrested from them. Their fears and weakness were surrounded by dangers on every side. In this critical situation it pleased God to make me the instrument of their deliverance." He drew a rapid and bold sketch of his transactions in India, in particular of his proceedings in regard to Suraj-u-Dowlah and Omichund: he asserted that the former was dethroned for his breach of faith, and as a necessary and lawful measure of self defence; that the latter was only entangled in the toils of intrigue and treachery woven by himself: that Admiral Watson expressed his thorough approbation of the proceedings in the revolution, and the means by which it was obtained; and he read the letter signed by him in conjunction with the Committee to that effect: that, great as his fortune was, it bore no proportion to what he might have made it: that not a sixpence was received from the inhabitants of Moorshedabad, who came to offer contributions to deliver them from being plundered by a victorious army: that his jaghire was not received in 1757, at the time of the revolution, as had been erroneously represented; it was not received till 1759, two years after. He described his attack on the Dutch armament, which he destroyed, as well as their army, and that at a time when most of his property was in the hands of the Dutch Company; a fact that showed no want of zeal for the honour and interest of the service, even at the imminent risk of ruin to his own fortune. He enumerated the marks of honour which he had received: he read the letters of the Court of Directors in approbation of the revolution, and of his conduct in it. "These, Sir," he exclaimed, "are surely sufficient certificates of my behaviour, and of the proceedings of that revolution; and, whatever the House may think of them, will remain an everlasting approbation of my conduct from those persons who alone employed me, and whose servant I was. A late Minister (Lord Chatham), whose abilities have been an honour to his country, and whom this House will ever revere, will, I am sure, come to your bar, and not only tell you how highly he thought of my services at the time, but also what his opinion is now."