"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 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.

sex, which

We have stated first, the sufferings of the begum, and secondly, the sufferings of the two thousand women, I believe they are not fewer in number, that belong to them, and are dependent upon them, and dependent upon their well-being. We have stated to you, that the court of directors were shocked and astonished when they received the account of the first, before they had heard the second. We have proved they desired him to redress the former, if, upon inquiry, he found that his original suspicions concerning their conduct were ill founded. He has declared here that he did not consider these as orders. Whether they were orders or not, could any thing have been more pressing upon all the duties and all the sentiments of men, than at least to do what was just, that is, to make such an inquiry as in the result might justify his acts, or have entitled them to redress? Not one trace of inquiry or redress do we find, except we suppose, as we hear nothing after this of the famine, that Mr. Bristow, who seems to be a man of humanity, did so effectually interpose, that they should no longer depend for the safety of their honor on the bludgeons of the sepoys, by which alone it seems they were defended from the profane view of the vulgar, and which we must state as a matter of great aggravation in this case.

The counsel on the other side say that all this intelligence comes in an anonymous paper without date, transmitted from a newspaper writer at Fyzabad. This is the contempt with which they treat this serious paper sent to Mr. Hastings himself by official authority; by Hoolas Roi, who was the newswriter at Fyzabad; the person appointed to convey authentic intelligence concerning the state of it to the resident at Lucknow. The resident received it as such; he transmitted it to Mr. Hastings, and it was not till this hour, till the counsel were instructed (God forgive them for obeying such instructions) to treat these things with ridicule, that we have heard. this Hoolas Roi called a common news-writer of anonymous information, and the like. If the information had come in

any way the least authentic, instead of coming in a manner the most authentic in which it was possible to come to Mr. Hastings-he was bound by every feeling of humanity, every principle of regard to his own honor and his employer's, to see whether it was true or false; if false to refute it; if true to afford redress: he has done neither. Therefore we charge him with being the cause; we charge upon him the consequences, with all the aggravations attending them; and we call both upon justice and humanity for redress, as far as it can be afforded to these people, and for the severest punishments which your lordships can inflict upon the author of these evils. If instead of the mass of crimes that we have brought before you, this singly had been charged upon the prisoner, I will say that it is a greater crime than any man has ever been impeached for before the House of Lords, from the first records of parliament to this hour.

I need not remind your lordships of one particular circumstance in this cruel outrage. No excuse or pretence whatever is brought forward in its justification. With respect to the begums, they have been charged with rebellion; but who has accused the miserable inhabitants of the Khourd Mahl of rebellion or rebellious designs? What hearsay is there even against them of it?-No; even the persons permitted by Mr. Hastings to rob and destroy the country, and who are stated by him to have been so employed; not one of that legion of locusts, which he had sent into the country to eat up and devour the bread of its inhabitants; and who had been the cause, both of the famine itself, and of the inability of the begums to struggle with it; none of these people, I say, ventured even a hearsay about these women.

Were the sufferers few? There were eight hundred of them, besides children. Were they persons of any rank and consequence? We are told that they were persons of considerable rank and distinction, connected with, and living under the protection of women of the first rank in Asia. Were they persons not deserving pity? We know that they