ning of this trial, I believe even very lately, it has been decided by the council, that the letter of Mr. Hastings was not, as Sir Elijah Impey pretended, a mere private letter, because it had "Dear Sir," in it; but a public order, authorizing the soldiers to divide the money among themselves.

Thus £200,000 was distributed among the soldiers; £400,000 was taken away by Cheit Sing, to be pillaged by all the company's enemies, through whose countries he passed; and so ended one of the great sources from which this great financier intended to supply the exigencies of the company, and recruit their exhausted finances.

By this proceeding, my lords, the national honor is disgraced; all the rules of justice are violated, and every sanction, human and divine, trampled upon. We have, on one side, a country ruined, a noble family destroyed, a rebellion raised by outrage and quelled by bloodshed, the national faith pledged to indemnity, and that indemnity faithlessly withheld from helpless, defenceless women; while the other side of the picture is equally unfavorable. The East India Company have had their treasure wasted, their credit weakened, their honor polluted, and their troops employed against their own subjects, when their services were required against foreign enemies.

My lords, it only remains for me, at this time, to make a few observations upon some proceedings of the prisoner, respecting the revenue of Benares. I must first state to your lordships, that, in the year 1780, he made a demand upon that country, which, by his own account, if it had been complied with, would only have left £23,000 a year, for the maintenance of the rajah and his family. I wish to have this account read, for the purpose of verifying the observations which I shall have to make to your lordships.

[Here the account was read.]

I must now observe to your lordships, that Mr. Markham and Mr. Hastings have stated the rajah's net revenue at forty-six lacks: but the accounts before you state it at forty

lacks only. Mr. Hastings had himself declared, that he did not think the country could safely yield more; and that any attempt to extract more would be ruinous.

Your lordships will observe, that the first of these estimates is unaccompanied with any document whatever, and that it is contradicted by the papers of receipt and the articles of account, from all of which it appears, that the country never yielded more than forty lacks, during the time that Mr. Hastings had it in his possession; and you may be sure he squeezed as much out of it as he could. He had his own residents; first Mr. Markham, then Mr. Fowke, then Mr. Grant; they all went up with a design to make the most of it. They endeavored to do so; but they never could screw it up to more than forty lacks, by all the violent means which they employed. The ordinary subsidy, as paid at Calcutta by the rajah, amounted to twenty-two lacks; and it is therefore clearly proved by this paper, that Mr. Hastings's demand of fifty lacks (£500,000) joined to the subsidies, was more than the whole revenue which the country could yield. What hoarded treasures the rajah possessed, and which Mr. Hastings says he carried off with him, does not appear. That it was any considerable sum, is more than Mr. Hastings knows; more than can be proved; more than is probable. He had not, in his precipitate flight, any means, I think, of carrying away a great sum. It further appears from these accounts, that after the payment of the subsidy, there would only have been left £18,000 a year for the support of the rajah's family and establishments.

Your lordships have now a standard, not a visionary one, but a standard verified by accurate calculation, and authentic accounts. You may now fairly estimate the avarice and rapacity of this man, who describes countries to be enormously rich, in order that he may be justified in pillaging them. But however insatiable the prisoner's avarice may be, he has other objects in view, other passions rankling in his heart, besides the lust of money. He was not ignorant, and

we have proved it by his own confession, that his pretended expectation of benefit to the company could not be realized; but he well knew, that by enforcing his demands he should utterly and effectually ruin a man, whom he mortally hated and abhorred; a man, who could not, by any sacrifices offered to the avarice, avert the cruelty, of his implacable enemy.

As long as truth remains, as long as figures stand, as long as two and two are four, as long as there is mathematical and arithmetical demonstration, so long shall his cruelty, rage, ravage, and oppression remain evident to an astonished posterity. I shall undertake, my lords, when this court meets again, to develop the consequences of this wicked proceeding. I shall then show you, that that part of the rajah's family which he left behind him, and which Mr. Hastings pretended to take under his protection, was also ruined, undone, and destroyed; and that the once beautiful country of Benares, which he has had the impudence to represent as being still in a prosperous condition, was left by him in such a state, as would move pity in any tyrant in the world, except the one who now stands before

you.

TRIAL.

TUESDAY, 3D JUNE, 1794.

THIRD DAY OF REPLY.

(MR. BURKE.)

MY LORDS,-We are called, with an awful voice, to come forth, and make good our charge against the prisoner at your bar; but as a long time has elapsed since your lordships heard that charge, I shall take the liberty of requesting my worthy fellow manager near me, to read that part to your lordships, which I am just now going to observe upon, that you may be the better able to apply my observations to the letter of the charge.

[Mr. Wyndham reads.]

"That the said Warren Hastings, having as aforesaid expelled the said Cheit Sing from his dominions, did, of his own usurped authority, and without any communication with, or any approbation given by, the other members of the council, nominate and appoint rajah Mehipnerain to the government of the provinces of Benares, and did appoint his father Durbedgy Sing as administrator of his authority, and did give to the British resident, Mr. Markham, a controlling authority over both; and did further abrogate and set aside all treaties and agreements which subsisted between the states of Benares and the British nation; and did arbitrarily and tyrannically, of his mere authority raise the tribute to the sum of £400,000 sterling, or thereabouts; did further

wantonly and illegally impose certain oppressive duties upon goods and merchandise, to the great injury of trade and ruin of the province; and did farther dispose of, as his own, the property within the said provinces, by granting the same, or parts thereof, in pensions to such persons as he thought fit.

"That the said Warren Hastings did, sometime in the year 1782, enter into a clandestine correspondence with William Markham, Esq., the then resident at Benares, which said Markham had been by him the said Warren Hastings, obtruded into the said office, contrary to the positive orders of the court of directors; and in consequence of the representation of the said Markham, did, under pretence that the new excessive rent or tribute was in arrear, and that the affairs of the province were likely to fall into confusion, authorize and empower him, by his own private authority, to remove the said Durbedgy Sing from his office, and deprive him of his estate.

"That the said Durbedgy Sing was, by the private orders and authorities given by the said Warren Hastings, and in consequence of the representations aforesaid, violently thrown into prison, and cruelly confined therein, under the pretence of the non-payment of the arrears of the tribute aforesaid.

"That the widow of Bulwant Sing, and the rajah Mehipnerain, did pointedly accuse the said Markham of being the sole cause of any delay in the payment of the tribute aforesaid, and did offer to prove the innocence of the said Durbedgy Sing, and also to prove that the faults ascribed to him. were solely the faults of the said Markham; yet the said Warren Hastings did pay no regard whatever to the said. representations, nor make any inquiry into the truth of the same, but did accuse the said widow of Bulwant Sing and rajah aforesaid, of gross presumption for the same; and listening to the representation of the person accused (namely, the resident Markham), did continue to confine the said Durbedgy Sing in prison, and did invest the resident Markham