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to Cojah Lataffit Ali Khân, under whose charge that zenana is."

These, my lords, are the state of the distresses in the year 1782; and your lordships will see that they continued almost, with only occasional reliefs, during the period of that whole year. Now we enter into the year 1783, to show you that it continued during the whole time; and then I shall make a very few remarks upon it.

I will now read to your lordships a part of Mr. Holt's evidence, by which it is proved that Mr. Hastings was duly advertised of all these miserable and calamitous circumstances:-"Q. Whether you saw a letter of intelligence from Fyzabad, containing a relation of the treatment of the women in the Khourd Mahl?—A. Yes, I did, and translated it. Q. From whom did it come ?-A. Hoolas Roi. Q. Who was he?—A. An agent of the resident at Fyzabad, employed for the purpose of transmitting information to the resident. Q. Was that paper transmitted to Mr. Hastings?-A. To the best of my recollection it was transmitted to the board, after I had attested it. Q. Do you remember at what distance of time after the receipt of the intelligence respecting the distresses of the Khourd Mahl, that paper was transmitted to Calcutta?-A. I cannot say. Q. Do you believe it was transmitted within ten months after the time it was received?-A. I understood it to be a letter received just before it was transmitted. Q. Then you understand it was transmitted as soon as received?-A. Yes, in the course of three days. Q. Can you bring to your mind the time at which the translation was made ?-A. To the best of my recollection it was in January, 1784. Q. Whether the distresses that had been complained of had ceased for above a twelvemonth before the distresses of the Khourd Mahl?-A. I understood they were new distresses. Q. Then you state that that account, transmitted in 1784, was, as you understand, an account of new distresses?-A. Yes."

I shall now refer your lordships to page 899 of your printed minutes :-[The managers for the Commons acquainted the House, that they would next read the paper of intelligence which had been authenticated by Mr. Holt, in his evidence at the bar, relative to the miserable situation of these women, which they meant to bring home to Mr. Hastings :]—An extract of a consultation of the 17th February, 1784.—At a council; present, the Honorable Warren Hastings, Esq., governor-general, President; Edward Wheler and John Stables, Esqrs., Mr. Macpherson absent from the presidency for the benefit of his health: The following letter and its enclosures were received from Mr. Bristow on the 8th instant, and circulated," Honorable Sir, and Gentlemen,-I have the honor to forward for your further information, the enclosure, No. 3; it contains a relation of the hardships endured by the ladies of the late Vizier Zenana.”—Signed, John Bristow.

Translation of a Paper of intelligence from Fyzabad.

"The ladies, their attendants, and servants were still as clamorous as last night; Lataffit, the daroga, went to them, and remonstrated with them on the impropriety of their conduct, at the same time assuring them, that in a few days all their allowances would be paid, and should that not be the case he would advance them ten days' subsistence, upon condition that they returned to their habitations; none of them however consented to his proposal, but were still intent upon making their escape through the bazar, and in consequence formed themselves in the following order :-The children in the front, behind them the ladies of the seraglio, and behind them again their attendants; but their intentions were frustrated, by the opposition which they met with from Lataffit's sepoys. The next day Lataffit went twice to the women, and used his endeavors to make them return into the zenana, promising to advance them 10,000 rupees, which, upon the money being paid down, they agreed to comply with; but night coming on, nothing transpired.

"On the day following, their clamors were more violent than usual; Lataffit went to confer with them on the business of yesterday, offering the same terms; depending upon the fidelity of his promises, they consented to return to their apartments, which they accordingly did, except two or three of the ladies, and most of their attendants; Lataffit went then to Hoshmund Ali Khân, to consult with him about what means they should take; they came to a resolution of driving them in by force, and gave orders to their sepoys to beat any one of the women who should attempt to move forward. The sepoys accordingly assembled, and each one being provided with a bludgeon, they drove them, by dint of beating, into the zenana. The women, seeing the treachery of Lataffit, proceeded to throw stones and bricks at the sepoys, and again attempted to get out; but finding that impossible from the gates being shut, they kept up a continual discharge till about twelve o'clock, when finding their situation desperate, they returned into the Rung Mahl, and forced their way from thence into the palace, and dispersed themselves about the house and gardens. After this they were desirous of getting into the begum's apartments, but she, being apprized of their intentions, ordered the doors to be shut. In the mean time Lataffit and Hoshmund Ali Khân posted justices to secure the gates of the lesser Mahl. During the whole of this conflict, the ladies and women remained exposed to the view of the sepoys.

"The begum then sent for Lataffit and Hoshmund Ali Khân, whom she severely reprimanded, and insisted upon knowing the cause of this infamous behavior. They pleaded in their defence the impossibility of helping it, as the treatment the women had met with had only been conformable to his excellency the vizier's orders. The begum alleged, that even admitting that the nabob had given these orders, they were by no means authorized in this manner to disgrace the family of Sujah Dowlah; and should they not receive their allowances for a day or two, it could be of no great moment;

what had passed was now at an end; but that the vizier should certainly be acquainted with the whole of the affair, and that whatever he directed, she should implicitly comply with. The begum then sent for two of the children, who were wounded in the affray of last night, and after endeavoring to soothe them, she again sent to Lataffit and Hoshmund Ali Khân, and in the presence of the children again expressed her disapprobation of their conduct, and the improbability of Azoph ul Dowlah's suffering the ladies and children of Sujah Dowlah to be disgraced by being exposed to the view of the sepoys; upon which Lataffit produced the letter from the nabob, representing that he was amenable only to the order of his excellency, and that whatever he ordered it was his duty to obey; and that had the ladies thought proper to have retired quietly to their apartments, he would not have used the means he had taken to compel them. The begum again observed, that what had passed was now over. She then gave the children 400 rupees and dismissed them, and sent word by Sunrud and the other eunuchs, that if the ladies would peaceably retire to their apartments, Lataffit would supply them with 3,000 or 4,000 rupees for their present expenses, and recommended them not to incur any further disgrace; and that if they did not think proper to act agreeably to her directions, they would do wrong. The ladies followed her advice, and about ten at night went back to the zenana. The next morning the begum waited upon the mother of Sujah Dowlah, and related to her all the circumstances of the disturbance. The mother of Sujah Dowlah returned for answer, that after there being no accounts kept by crores of revenue, she was not surprised that the family of Sujah Dowlah, in their endeavors to procure subsistence, should be obliged to expose themselves to the meanest of the people. After bewailing their misfortunes and shedding many tears, the begum took her leave and returned home."

As a proof of the extremity of the distress which reigned in the Khourd Mahl, your lordships have been told, that these women must have perished through famine, if their gaolers, Captain Jaques and Major Gilpin, had not raised money upon their own credit, and supplied them with an occasional relief. And therefore when they talk of his peculation, of his taking but a bribe here and a bribe there, see the consequences of his system of peculation, see the consequences of a usurpation which extinguishes the natural authority of the country, see the consequences of a clandestine correspondence that does not let the injuries of the country come regularly before the authorities in Oude, to relieve it; consider the whole mass of crimes, and then consider the sufferings that have arisen in consequence of it.

My lords, it was not corporal pain alone that these miserable women suffered. The unsatisfied cravings of hunger, and the blows of the sepoys' bludgeons, could touch only the physical part of their nature. But, my lords, men are made of two parts; the physical part and the moral. The former he has in common with the brute creation. Like theirs, our corporal pains are very limited and temporary. But the sufferings which touch our moral nature, have a wider range, and are infinitely more acute, driving the sufferer sometimes to the extremities of despair and distraction. Man, in his moral nature, becomes, in his progress through life, a creature of prejudice-a creature of opinions-a creature of habits, and of sentiments growing out of them. These form our second nature, as inhabitants of the country and members of the society in which Providence has placed us. This sensibility of our moral nature is far more acute in that sex, which I may say, without any compliment, forms the better and more virtuous part of mankind; and which is at the same time the least protected from the insults and outrages to which this sensibility exposes them. This is a new source of feelings that often make corporal distress doubly felt; and it has a whole class of distresses of its own. These are the things that have gone to the heart of the Commons.

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